Mastercard announced a new service on October 19 that will help banks assess fraud, scam, and sanctions risks before they complete stablecoin payments. Called Stablecoin Security, the product combines information from traditional payment systems with blockchain data.
The company unveiled the service at Money20/20 USA in Las Vegas. Borderless.xyz and Keyrails are its first partners, while Mastercard plans an initial North American launch followed by wider commercial availability in 2027.
The service examines a payment's source of funds, transaction details, links to restricted parties, and signs of scams. It produces a risk score before payment completion and provides information as money moves between traditional currencies and stablecoins.
Banks can receive the results through an application programming interface (API) and add them to existing fraud checks, compliance reviews, and case management systems. The score helps institutions decide whether to proceed with a transfer or examine it further. Mastercard did not publish pricing or a date for the initial North American release.
Ann Johnson, Mastercard's executive vice president of Security Solutions, said, “Stablecoins are creating new possibilities for value exchange, but financial institutions need the right intelligence and controls to participate with confidence.”
Mastercard cited research published by the Bank for International Settlements in June. Researchers examined 593 million transfer events within 141 million Ethereum transactions during 2025, covering Tether's USDT, Circle's USDC, and PayPal's PYUSD.
They found that nearly 60% of transfer events appeared within complex transactions involving multiple steps. That finding does not mean 60% of individual stablecoin payments were complex. The researchers also found that about one-third of the transactions involved multiple event logs and added computing activity.
Such transactions can include trading, lending, and other operations within the same blockchain transaction. As a result, looking at a transfer by itself may not show the full activity around it. The new service aims to give banks more information before they release funds.
Borderless.xyz connects financial institutions to licensed stablecoin payment providers across more than 113 countries and 72 currencies. It also helps route payments to providers. Keyrails works on high-value international trade payments, including transactions in emerging markets.
Both companies previously joined Mastercard's Start Path Blockchain and Digital Assets program. They will work with the payment network to bring the screening service into cross-border payment flows, according to the October 19 announcement.
The companies have not disclosed how many transactions they expect to screen through the service or when their customers will begin using it.
Mastercard expects Stablecoin Security to become commercially available worldwide in 2027. It also plans to expand the service through BVNK, the stablecoin infrastructure business it acquired in August.
The company introduced its Global Money Platform with BVNK on October 15. That platform combines accounts for traditional currencies and stablecoins, currency conversion, card spending, and local bank payouts through one connection.
Mastercard also offers Crypto Credential and Crypto Secure, which support other checks for digital asset payments and their users.
Stablecoin Security will provide a separate risk-checking function as Mastercard expands its digital currency payment services. The company has not provided a country-by-country rollout schedule or detailed pricing.
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