Modern Treasury joins Mastercard crypto partner push

Modern Treasury has joined Mastercard's newly launched Crypto Partner Program as an on/off-ramp provider, adding its payments infrastructure to an initiative that Mastercard says now includes more than 85 companies across digital assets, payments and financial services.

The tie-up sits within Mastercard's broader effort to connect blockchain-based payment flows with established banking and card networks. The programme is positioned as a forum for collaboration on "secure on-chain payments connected to global commerce", with a focus on practical use cases such as cross-border money movement, settlement and payouts.

Modern Treasury's role centres on fiat-to-crypto and crypto-to-fiat flows, working with Mastercard and other participants to move payments between traditional rails and digital asset platforms.

Partners get access to parts of Mastercard's payments infrastructure, including its fiat distribution network through Mastercard Move Cross-Border Services. Modern Treasury said the service reaches more than 95% of the world's population and connects digital asset platforms to banks, payment rails and financial institutions.

Network access

The Crypto Partner Program brings together crypto exchanges, stablecoin issuers, infrastructure providers, compliance specialists and fintech platforms. The published partner list includes PayPal, Circle, Binance and Kraken. Coinbase was not listed. It also includes blockchain networks and tooling firms such as Solana, Stellar, Polygon, Aptos and Chainalysis, as well as payments and issuing specialists including Marqeta, Lithic, Worldpay and Thredd, alongside banks such as Cross River and WebBank.

Mastercard framed the programme as a response to digital assets moving "behind the scenes" into financial operations, including B2B transfers and remittances. It said enterprise and institutional use cases are gaining traction as firms look at cross-border movement, settlement and payouts.

Modern Treasury sells payment operations software to corporates and financial institutions, and in recent years has expanded from traditional rails into stablecoin-linked transactions. It said its platform provides a single API for fiat and stablecoin transactions, with compliance, ledgering and reporting built in.

On and off ramps

On/off-ramp services are a core part of the digital asset payments market, handling conversion and movement between bank money and crypto assets. They also carry compliance and fraud controls, which are under closer scrutiny as more regulated institutions engage with blockchain-based payments.

Mastercard said participants will work with its teams on the design and direction of future products and services. It added that the programme will cover solutions that combine digital-asset features such as programmability with established card rails and commerce flows.

Modern Treasury linked its participation to cross-currency and cross-border movement, and said collaboration with large networks is important for connecting new payment types to existing infrastructure.

Matt Marcus, Modern Treasury's co-founder and CEO, said the partnership will make it easier for companies to move between asset types and payment systems.

"Mastercard has built one of the world's most powerful financial networks," Marcus said. "By combining that global reach with Modern Treasury's payments infrastructure, we can make it easier for companies to move between fiat and digital assets. Collaborations like this are critical to redefining how money moves across currencies, geographies, and payment systems."

Programme structure

Mastercard said the initiative gives partners opportunities to explore integrations with its services, engage on emerging use cases and collaborate across the payments ecosystem. It added that participants can take part in joint planning across Mastercard's network of banks, merchants, payment service providers and fintech platforms.

Mastercard has run other blockchain and digital asset initiatives, including Start Path tracks focused on the sector and an Engage platform that includes a crypto card programme. The Crypto Partner Program extends that approach into a broader partner framework intended to align standards and support "responsible growth".

For Modern Treasury, joining the programme adds a new distribution channel and potential integration points with banks and payment providers already connected to Mastercard. It also puts the company alongside a crowded field of crypto payments specialists and infrastructure vendors competing to become the plumbing for regulated digital asset flows.

Mastercard said it will continue to focus on "enabling trust, setting standards and connecting systems at scale" as the programme develops, with participants working on use cases that can operate across markets and integrate into everyday commerce.