Global payments giant Mastercard is expanding its global settlement infrastructure to support additional intraday, weekend, and holiday settlement windows, as well as on-chain settlement using regulated stablecoins, the company announced Wednesday.

The company said the upgrades will provide issuers and acquirers with more options for managing liquidity and settling card transactions beyond traditional banking hours. The enhancements are intended to work alongside existing settlement processes and support use cases such as cross-border payments, treasury management, and business payouts.

Stablecoin settlement will be available through a range of regulated digital assets, including Circle’s USDC, Paxos-issued PYUSD, USDG, USDP, Ripple’s RLUSD, and SoFiUSD. Mastercard plans to support these assets across several blockchain networks, including Ethereum, Solana, Polygon, Base, Arbitrum, XRPL, Canton, and Tempo.

“As demand grows for faster and more flexible movement of money, organizations are increasingly seeking infrastructure that can operate beyond traditional banking hours,” Kash Razzaghi, Circle’s chief commercial officer, said in a statement. “Mastercard’s expanded settlement capabilities help meet that need, offering greater choice in how value is transferred and settled.”

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Initial ecosystem participants are expected to include ARQ, CBW Bank, Cross River, Lead Bank, and Nuvei, with deployments beginning in the US and Latin America before expanding to additional regions.

“We’ve seen firsthand the accelerating demand from our partners for faster, more transparent settlement, and stablecoins have emerged as a powerful tool to meet that need,” Luca Cosentino, head of on-chain finance at Cross River, commented on the move. ”Mastercard’s decision to bring on-chain settlement to its global network validates what we’ve been building toward: a future where digital asset rails operate seamlessly alongside traditional payments infrastructure.”

Mastercard said the initiative represents the next phase of its digital asset strategy, allowing financial institutions to access both traditional and blockchain-based settlement through the same network infrastructure while preserving established safeguards and operational standards.

“Mastercard’s move into on-chain settlement is a landmark validation that blockchain technology is ready for the world’s most critical payment infrastructure,” Jack McDonald, senior vice president of stablecoins at Ripple, said. “RLUSD’s inclusion in Mastercard’s global settlement network reflects growing demand for trusted, regulated stablecoins built for real-world financial use cases on public blockchains like the XRP Ledger. We’re excited to support the next evolution of faster, more flexible, always-on settlement.”

Mastercard’s US money transfer subsidiary, MTS US, has been granted a NYDFS BitLicense, allowing it to support settlement using stablecoins and tokenized deposits. Mastercard said the approval underscored its focus on regulatory standards and trusted digital payment infrastructure.

With the planned acquisition of BVNK and partnerships with Circle and Paxos, Mastercard is building a comprehensive infrastructure for stablecoin-based payments and settlement.

“The future of settlement is programmable, instant and global,” Peter Jonas, chief revenue officer of Paxos, stated. “Paxos’s regulated infrastructure gives partners like Mastercard a trusted path to on-chain settlement using PYUSD, USDG, and USDP that works seamlessly alongside existing systems, helping advance more efficient payment flows.”