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Mastercard Says Customers Are Too Comfortable With Today's Money for Adoption of CBDCs: CNBC
The payments giant has a CBDC Partner Program that includes participants such as Ripple, Fireblocks and Consensys.
Updated Mar 8, 2024, 5:17 p.m. Published Nov 17, 2023, 11:19 a.m.
Customers are so comfortable using today's money that there's no justification for central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), Mastercard's lead for blockchain and digital assets for Asia-Pacific has told CNBC.
"The difficult part is adoption," Ashok Venkateshwaran said on the sidelines of the Singapore FinTech festival on Wednesday. "So if you have CBDCs in your wallet, you should have the ability for you to spend it anywhere you want – very similar to cash today."
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The payments giant has a CBDC Partner Program that includes participants such as Ripple, Fireblocks and Consensys. The move was designed to encourage conversations among key players in the industry, but was seen as a way for Mastercard (MA) to deepen its involvement with CBDC developments as the number of nations exploring the technology grows. As many as 130 countries, representing 98% of global gross domestic product, are exploring a CBDC, according to the Atlantic Council. In May 2020, only 35 countries were considering one. Still, only 11 countries have so far introduced a digital currency.
For the time being, it's hard to justify the effort, he said. Building the necessary infrastructure "takes a lot of time and effort on a part of the country."
Last week, Mastercard completed Hong Kong's CBDC Pilot focused on demonstrating how CBDCs or tokenized deposits can be used for real-world asset transactions. "The pilot also showcased the potential for seamless funding and settlement in and out of Web3 marketplaces via a retail central bank digital currency (CBDC)."
Read More: Mastercard Deepens Tie to CBDCs as Nations Mull Issuing Digital Currencies
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Bilinmesi gerekenler:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
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Canadian Province Wins Forfeiture of $1M QuadrigaCX Co-Founder's Cash & Gold via Default Judgment
The ruling transfers cash, gold bars, watches, and jewelry seized from a CIBC safety deposit box and bank account into government hands after Patryn did not defend the case.
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- The Supreme Court of British Columbia has forfeited $1 million in cash and gold tied to QuadrigaCX's co-founder, Michael Patryn, to the government.
- Patryn did not contest the forfeiture, which involved 45 gold bars, luxury watches, and over $250,000 in cash seized under an Unexplained Wealth Order.
- The forfeiture may lead to a process determining if any assets can be directed to QuadrigaCX's creditors, who received 13 cents on the dollar in the bankruptcy settlement.
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