Mastercard adds a layer of security to stablecoin payments. Its new tool, Stablecoin Security, will assign transactions a risk score before funds are even moved on-chain. Fraud, scams, sanctions and other financial crime risks will be analyzed using payment and blockchain data. Borderless.xyz and Keyrails are the first partners. Global commercial launch is planned for 2027.
In brief
- Stablecoin Security analyzes transactions before their on-chain execution.
- Mastercard looks for links to fraud, scams and sanctions.
- The service will first arrive in North America, before a global rollout in 2027.
Mastercard brings its anti-fraud tools to crypto
Mastercard is not starting from scratch in stablecoins. In March, the group had already bet up to $1.8 billion on BVNK, a company specializing in infrastructure linking traditional currencies and blockchain.
Stablecoin Security is now tackling the security of the streams themselves. The tool combines Mastercard’s historical data and detection capabilities with information from blockchains. When a transaction is initiated, the system examines the origin of the funds, their journey and the context of the payment.
In particular, it looks for indicators related to fraud, scams, international sanctions and other suspicious financial activities. A risk score is then sent to the financial institution via an API. The particularity lies in the timing: this information can be available before the funds leave on-chain. A bank can therefore integrate the result into its existing fraud and compliance systems and decide how to proceed with the transaction.
Mastercard does not automatically block all reported payments. Stablecoin Security above all provides the information allowing the institution to make its decision.
593 million events show the complexity of stablecoins
Monitoring becomes more complicated as crypto payments mix with smart contracts. Mastercard cites in particular a study by the Bank for International Settlements dedicated to the activity of USDT, USDC and PYUSD on Ethereum in 2025.
Researchers analyzed 593 million events recorded in 141 million Ethereum transactions. Nearly 60% of stablecoin transfer events appeared inside complex transactions. A transfer can thus be just one step among several others: swap, loan, arbitrage, liquidity provision or settlement.
Tracking only the address that sends USDC and the one that receives them is therefore not always enough to reconstruct what really happened. Meanwhile, their use in payments is increasing. USDC and USDT already represent 84% of spending with crypto cards, according to data analyzed this summer. Mastercard wants to apply to these new flows some of the tools it has used for a long time in traditional payments.
Borderless and Keyrails open deployment in 2027
Two companies will test the first integrations. Borderless.xyz connects financial institutions with regulated stablecoin providers in over 113 countries and 72 currencies. Keyrails mainly works on large cross-border commercial payments, particularly in emerging markets.
The launch will begin in North America. Mastercard then plans global commercial availability in 2027. BVNK is also expected to join Stablecoin Security next year. The group is now increasing the number of bridges between its historical infrastructures and digital assets. It had already opened its network to autonomous payments driven by AI agents, including stablecoins.
Visa is moving forward on the same ground. Its competitor has just moved stablecoin payments from Visa Direct to commercial production. Mastercard adds another piece here: compliance before settlement. Stablecoins promise fast transfers, available 24 hours a day and directly executable on blockchain. Banks also want to know who they are dealing with before sending the money. Stablecoin Security is designed precisely for this moment.
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