Mastercard announced it is expanding its settlement infrastructure to allow card issuers and acquirers to settle transactions using regulated stablecoins — including Ripple's RLUSD, Circle's USDC, Paxos-issued PYUSD and USDP, USDG, and SoFi's SoFiUSD. The move enables intraday, weekend, and holiday settlement options that bypass traditional banking-hours constraints.
The stablecoin settlement capability spans eight blockchain networks: Arbitrum, Base, Canton, Ethereum, Polygon, Solana, Stellar, and the XRP Ledger. Mastercard said ARQ (formerly DolarApp), CBW Bank, Cross River, Lead Bank, and Nuvei are among the first institutions expected to adopt the feature in the United States and Latin America.
RLUSD is Ripple's US dollar-pegged stablecoin with a market capitalization of approximately $1.57 billion. Its inclusion in Mastercard's settlement network alongside USDC and PYUSD marks a significant step: RLUSD is no longer just a DeFi or crypto-exchange instrument, but part of legacy card infrastructure processing tens of billions in daily volume.
"The stablecoin market is currently valued at about $320 billion," according to CoinTelegraph's June 3 reporting. Mastercard's settlement expansion follows similar moves by Visa, MoneyGram, and Western Union to deepen stablecoin infrastructure within existing payment networks.
Traditional card settlement operates within banking hours on business days. Stablecoin settlement on public blockchains operates continuously. By integrating regulated stablecoins into its settlement layer, Mastercard creates a bridge: card transactions can now clear on weekends, holidays, and outside banking windows — without requiring issuers or acquirers to rebuild core systems.
The expansion follows Mastercard's receipt of a New York BitLicense, clearing a state-level regulatory hurdle for digital asset operations. Institutions can opt into stablecoin settlement while continuing to use traditional fiat rails — the two systems coexist.
The XRP Ledger is listed as one of the eight supported blockchains alongside Ethereum, Base, and Solana. This places XRPL infrastructure at the center of Mastercard's stablecoin expansion as a production settlement rail. The settlement announcement also comes shortly after JPMorgan and Mastercard completed the first cross-border tokenized US Treasury fund redemption using XRPL rails — a separate development demonstrating the network's institutional reach across both stablecoin payments and tokenized asset settlement.
Visa has operated its USDC settlement program since 2021. Western Union and MoneyGram have integrated stablecoin rails for remittances. What distinguishes Mastercard's announcement is scope: multiple stablecoins, eight blockchains, and an explicit opt-in framework for issuers and acquirers globally. For the $320 billion stablecoin market, Mastercard's adoption is a legitimacy signal — stablecoins are becoming part of the legacy settlement layer, not just alternatives to it.