Mastercard is launching today a tool to combat crypto fraud. The tool name is Crypto Secure. It is meant to help banks assess the risk of crime associated with crypto-exchanges on its network.
Mastercard already offers a similar service with crypto-transactions available to banks.
Mastercard’s president of cyber and intelligence business, Ajay Bhalla, said the development helps its partners stay in compliance with local regulations. He said :
“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.”
Crypto Secure is based on CipherTrace, a cybersecurity and blockchain startup acquired by Mastercard in the fall of 2021.
According to Chainalysis, transactions related to “illicit addresses” accounted for 0.15 percent of total crypto-transaction volume in 2021. In Australia in 2022, investors lost $242 million to crypto-related investments and scams.
While Bitcoin has lost more than 70% of its value since its last ATH in the fall of 2021, Bhalla believes this ecosystem runs in cycles. The executive explained that Mastercard is focused on developing products for the long term.
‘These are market cycles, they will come and they will go,’ he said.
