Mastercard has expanded its partnership with Circle, a FinTech which issues stablecoins pegged to the US dollar, to enable USDC and EURC settlement for acquirers in the Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa (EEMEA) region.

The payments giant said the expanded partnership marks the first time that acquirers in EEMEA will be able to settle transactions in stablecoins, adding that the move underscores Mastercard’s role in connecting blockchain-native crypto assets with traditional fiat commerce infrastructure.

Under the agreement, Mastercard said acquiring institutions will be able to get their settlement in USDC or EURC, which are fully-reserved stablecoins issued by regulated affiliates of Circle, and use them to settle with merchants.

The partnership builds on existing efforts between Circle and Mastercard to facilitate crypto card solutions, such as Bybit and S1LKPAY, which use USDC to settle transactions.

“Our strategic goal is to integrate stablecoins into the financial mainstream by investing in the infrastructure, governance, and partnerships to support this exciting payment evolution from fiat to tokenised and programmable money,” said Dimitrios Dosis, president, Eastern Europe, Middle East, and Africa at Mastercard. “Through our expanded partnership with Circle, we are taking bold steps in integrating their innovative use across our global network.”

Mastercard added that it continues to support the growth of stablecoins globally and is working to enable end-to-end stablecoin payments.

This includes ongoing, global work with Circle to give merchants the option to receive their payments in stablecoins, regardless of how a consumer chooses to pay.

Along with USDC, Mastercard said it supports a growing portfolio of regulated stablecoins from issuers around the world, including Paxos’ USDG, Fiserv’s FIUSD and PayPal’s PYUSD.

The company added that it is driving broader efforts to drive regulated, real-world stablecoin use cases across remittances, B2B transactions, and payouts to gig workers and creators via platforms like Mastercard Move and the Multi-Token Network (MTN).

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