Mastercard buys blockchain intelligence firm, CipherTrace

Payment giant, Mastercard seems to have its eyes set on cryptocurrencies as the company just acquired CipherTrace, a blockchain intelligence firm with crypto forensics capabilities.

According to a business wire publication, the global payments giant has reached an agreement to acquire CipherTrace, founded in 2015 as the world’s first blockchain forensics company with insight into more than 900 cryptocurrencies.

As part of the acquisition, Mastercard says it plans to integrate CipherTrace’s operations into its own cyber security solutions for digital assets. According to the announcement, Mastercard will combine its cyber capabilities with CipherTrace technology to differentiate its card and real-time payments architecture. For Mastercard, the deal will allow clients and partners to adopt digital assets while maintaining compliance with financial regulatory provisions.

CipherTrace’s innovative platform helps customers enhance their security and fraud monitoring activities for crypto-related programs. It provides solutions for some of the largest banks, exchanges, and other financial institutions in the world due to its industry-leading data analytics and algorithms to help customers convert on their opportunities across 7,000+ cryptocurrency entities.

Mastercard’s cyber and intelligence chief, Ajay Bhalla stated that the growth of the crypto market has necessitated the need for trusted and safe operations. He stated, “Digital assets have the potential to reimagine commerce, from everyday acts like paying and getting paid to transforming economies, making them more inclusive and efficient. With the rapid growth of the digital asset ecosystem comes the need to ensure it is trusted and safe. Our aim is to build upon the complementary capabilities of Mastercard and CipherTrace to do just this.”

Dave Jevans, CEO, CipherTrace, stated, “We help companies – whether they are banks or cryptocurrency exchanges, government regulators or law enforcement to keep the crypto economy safe. Our two companies share this vision to provide security and trust throughout the ecosystem. We are thrilled to join the Mastercard family to scale CipherTrace’s reach across the globe.”

This is not the only investment MasterCard has made in the cryptocurrency space as the company has been partnering with notable crypto primitives in the crypto credit and debit card arena, such as Gemini and BitPay.

MasterCard is trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) with its share price currently at $351.41, as of the time of this writing. Year-to-Date (YtD), the share price is down marginally by 0.02%.

The acquisition of a major player in the crypto forensics arena like CipherTrace might be geared towards greater interaction with central banks and stablecoin issuers on digital currency matters. Crypto.com announced plans to integrate CipherTrace’s “Traveller” tool into its compliance toolkit as a way of ensuring compliance with the Financial Action Task Force’s “Travel Rule.”