Mastercard is increasing its Crypto Credential program to self-custody wallets, permitting customers to ship and obtain cryptocurrencies utilizing verified, username-style aliases as an alternative of lengthy pockets addresses.
Polygon would be the first blockchain to help the rollout, whereas funds agency Mercuryo will deal with identification verification and difficulty the aliases to customers, based on a Tuesday press launch shared with Cointelegraph.
“By streamlining pockets addresses and including significant verification, Mastercard Crypto Credential is constructing belief in digital token transfers,” mentioned Raj Dhamodharan, government vice chairman of blockchain and digital property at Mastercard.
As soon as verified by Mercuryo, customers can hyperlink a human-readable alias to their self-custody pockets or request a soulbound token on Polygon that proves the pockets belongs to a verified particular person.
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Mastercard goals to make self-custody crypto transfers safer
Mastercard mentioned the transfer is geared toward lowering errors attributable to copying lengthy hexadecimal addresses and that the system is designed to operate extra like conventional fee rails.
“This partnership marks the second when self-custody turns into easy,” mentioned Marc Boiron, CEO of Polygon Labs.
Mercuryo, the primary issuer for this system, mentioned the rollout displays rising demand for safe however user-friendly crypto experiences that don’t require giving up pockets sovereignty.
Mastercard has been accelerating its crypto technique all through 2024 and 2025, launching debit cards with Kraken throughout Europe and partnering with MetaMask on a self-custody funds card.
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Mastercard faucets Chainlink to deliver cnchain crypto purchases
In June, Mastercard partnered with Chainlink to allow its three billion cardholders to purchase crypto straight onchain, marking one of many credit-card big’s largest steps into Web3.
The rollout depends on a number of Web3 companions, together with Shift4 Funds, Swapper Finance, XSwap and ZeroHash, with ZeroHash supplying onchain liquidity to transform fiat into crypto. Chainlink mentioned the model out there via Swapper Finance is totally non-custodial and makes use of account abstraction to make the method acquainted for on a regular basis customers.
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