Financial services giant, Mastercard, has just unveiled a new crypto related solution to help banks prevent fraud on crypto merchant platforms. The service titled ‘Crypto Secure’ will use artificial intelligence (Ai) to detect crime-related risks of crypto exchanges within the Mastercard network.
As cryptocurrency adoption goes mainstream, so does the risks associated with this burgeoning sector. Crypto related crimes have skyrocketed over the past few months. Yesterday, the Financial Monitoring Agency of the Republic of Kazakhstan and Binance have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to fight crypto related crimes in Kazakhstan. In August the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) released a warning to investors regarding a sudden uptick in the exploits of decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms.
Mastercard to Boost Crypto Security
According to a report, ‘Crypto Secure’, will incorporate artificial intelligence, blockchain data and public records of crypto transactions to assess crypto exchange-related risk on Mastercard’s network. The new software will rely on on-chain data, powered by Mastercard-acquired blockchain-security startup, CipherTrace, to determine illicit transactions involving cryptocurrencies.
The report states that on the Crypto Secure platform, banks along with other card issuers will be shown a dashboard with color-coded ratings representing the risk of suspicious activity. The dashboard will also display severity of threats ranging from red for “high” to green for “low.” However, card issuers will have the sole power to turn away a specific crypto merchant depending on the threat level.
Ajay Bhalla, Mastercard’s president of cyber and intelligence business, emphasized that it’s crucial that crypto accounts are treated with the utmost caution as crypto related crimes are on the rise. He highlighted that crypto-companies should “stay compliant with the complex regulatory landscape.” Bhalla added,
“The idea is that the kind of trust we provide for digital commerce transactions, we want to be able to provide the same kind of trust to digital asset transactions for consumers, banks and merchants.”
Mastercard’s Tryst with Crypto
Excited to bring a safer, simpler way to experience one of the coolest things to come out of crypto…#NFTs with @Immutable @CandyDigital @TheSandboxGame @mintable_app @spring4creators @niftygateway + @moonpay https://t.co/jXNf8dqetx
— raj dhamodharan (@raj_dhamodharan) June 9, 2022
Over the last couple of months, Mastercard has been solidifying its ground in the cryptocurrency industry. In June, the financial giant partnered with leading Web3 companies including Immutable X, Candy Digital, TheSandbox, Mintable, Spring, Nifty Gateway and MoonPay to enable non-fungible token (NFT) commerce.
Last month, Mastercard announced a deal with Binance to launch the “Binance Card” in Argentina in an effort to bridge the gap between cryptocurrencies and everyday purchases. Recently, Mastercard has also collaborated with crypto platform hi to launch world’s first NFT customizable card.
