Mastercard Boosts Circle Partnership For USDC And EURC Stablecoin Payments In EEMEA Region

• Mastercard and Circle expanded their partnership to provide merchants and users across the EEMA region with options to process transactions in USDC and EURC stablecoins.

Stablecoins are no longer just a fad or a niche market. These digital assets are now gradually taking over a huge share of the financial markets. Further accelerating the trend is the expansion of the partnership of card payments giant Mastercard with stablecoin powerhouse Circle.

Mastercard and Circle Partnership Expansion

The expanded partnership aims to boost Mastercard’s stablecoin payment options following its earlier tie-up with Circle, alongside Canadian card payment processor Nuvei and stablecoin issuer Paxos. This will offer merchants and users greater flexibility in their transactions as its network enhances its compatibility with the USDC and EURC.

The upgraded collaboration extends the reach of Mastercard’s USDC- and EURC-compatible platform across the Eastern Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EEMEA) region. Their advance builds upon the partnership’s existing links with crypto card solutions Bybit and S1LKPAY, companies that utilize USDC for payment settlements. Mastercard says the move reinforces its role in connecting blockchain-native crypto assets with traditional fiat commerce infrastructure.

ADVERTISEMENT“Our strategic goal is to integrate stablecoins into the financial mainstream by investing in the infrastructure, governance, and partnerships to support this exciting payment evolution from fiat to tokenised and programmable money,” said Mastercard’s EEA president, Dimitrios Dosis.

“Through our expanded partnership with Circle, we are taking bold steps in integrating their innovative use across our global network,” he added. “We know that trust is essential to scale, and we are proud to play a leading role by applying our decades of experience in security and compliance to the stablecoin space.”

The first companies to leverage Mastercard and Circle’s expanded partnership are Arab Financial Services (AFS) and Eazy Financial Services (Eazypay.com). The former is an entity owned by 37 banks and financial institutions, while the latter is a payment services provider with thousands of active users in Bahrain.

ADVERTISEMENT## Stablecoin Vs. Traditional Card Payments

Stablecoins offer distinct advantages over traditional card payments in transaction speed, fees, flexibility, and security. The charges in each stablecoin vary depending on market, chain, or network dynamics, but they typically range between near-zero to 1%. The rates display a substantial difference from the 0.73% fees of debit cards or the 1.1%-3.5% fees of credit cards. Meanwhile, each stablecoin transaction almost takes real-time to finish compared to the 1-3 business days settlement of traditional card payments.

On the other hand, card payments have higher fraud and customer protections in place, and issuers can revert or reverse their transactions when needed, such as in the case of system errors or fraudulent activities. Stablecoin and blockchain payments are always final and irreversible, unless added by the processor.

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