Mastercard broadens stablecoin settlement options across USDC, PYUSD and RLUSD rails

Mastercard is widening the role of stablecoins inside its settlement stack, extending beyond pilot-style experimentation into a more explicit operating model for card flows. According to Decrypt, the company is expanding its capabilities so issuers and acquirers can access additional intraday, weekend and holiday settlement windows, with support that spans both traditional fiat processes and regulated stablecoin rails. In practical terms, that means partners are being offered more flexibility around when funds can move and how liquidity can be managed, a notable step for a global network that has historically relied on banking-hour infrastructure for core settlement activity.

The company framed the change around the idea of an “always-on” economy, where merchants, payment providers and users increasingly expect money movement to keep pace with internet-native commerce. Raj Dhamodharan, Mastercard’s executive vice president for blockchain and digital assets, said the next phase of stablecoin adoption is about utility in real-world settlement, particularly where timing and liquidity matter. That framing is important for the RWA market because settlement is one of the clearest areas where tokenized cash instruments can solve an operational problem rather than simply add another asset format. A faster settlement cycle can reduce idle capital, simplify treasury operations and give payment counterparties more options outside normal banking windows.

Decrypt reported that Mastercard’s expansion builds on an existing relationship with Circle and the use of USDC in select settlement settings. The company is also extending support to additional regulated tokens, including Paxos-issued PYUSD, USDG and USDP, Ripple’s RLUSD and SoFiUSD, the recently launched dollar-backed token from SoFi. That list shows the company is not tying its strategy to a single issuer. Instead, it is building a broader framework where multiple stablecoin products can serve as settlement instruments so long as they meet the network’s standards and fit the relevant compliance perimeter. For market participants, that multi-issuer approach matters because it reduces dependence on one provider and signals a push toward stablecoin interoperability at the network level.

The blockchain footprint is broad as well. Mastercard said settlement will be enabled across Ethereum, Solana, Tempo, the XRP Ledger and Base. That is a meaningful design choice because it reflects how major payment companies increasingly have to meet liquidity and asset issuance where they already exist, rather than forcing all activity onto one chain. In the RWA context, this is consistent with a market structure in which tokenized money, tokenized securities and payment messaging can coexist across several networks while remaining commercially usable. The settlement layer becomes less about a single blockchain winner and more about reliable connectivity between regulated participants, token issuers and operating rails.

The strategic read-through is that stablecoins are moving deeper into payments infrastructure as a back-office and treasury tool, not just a consumer-facing crypto product. Mastercard already had prior digital-asset relationships in place, and this latest step suggests the company sees enough demand from issuers, acquirers and institutional counterparties to add more formal settlement optionality. That does not mean stablecoins replace existing card economics or bank-linked flows overnight. What it does mean is that large incumbents are increasingly willing to let tokenized cash instruments handle specific parts of the money movement process when they offer speed, timing flexibility or balance-sheet efficiency.

For RWA builders, the development is notable because tokenized finance depends on credible cash settlement just as much as it depends on tokenized securities. A network that can settle on weekends, intraday or outside the traditional cut-off cycle is materially more compatible with onchain markets and continuously available distribution channels. Mastercard’s move does not settle the larger questions around regulation, issuer concentration or chain fragmentation, but it does show where adoption is becoming tangible: in the operational plumbing of payments. That is the kind of incremental infrastructure change that can make tokenized dollars more durable inside mainstream financial workflows.