Mastercard’s Crypto Secure combines insights and technology from CipherTrace with proprietary information to help card issuers better assess the risk profile of crypto exchanges or other providers and decide which purchases of cryptocurrency to approve.

Rather than considering or employing a one-size-fits-all approach, which could potentially restrict legitimate activity, issuers will be able to identify and turn away transactions with crypto merchants prone to fraud.

Ajay Bhalla, president of Mastercard Cyber and Intelligence, says: “Crypto Secure will provide card issuers with a platform that allows them access to insights which will improve the safety of crypto purchases, increasing consumer confidence and creating the same trust they expect when paying with Mastercard.”

Crypto Secure provides each issuer with a colour-coded dashboard which shows where their cardholders are buying cryptocurrency. The platform enables issuers to accurately identify the crypto exchanges and measure measure transaction approvals and declines. Firms will also be able to understand, at a portfolio level, their exposure to crypto risk through a single score and access a benchmark rating for comparison to a peer group of financial institutions.