The payment giant announced Tuesday “a new Start Path global startup engagement program dedicated to supporting fast-growing digital assets, blockchain and cryptocurrency companies.”

According to the announcement, the program has already attracted seven startups, which will work with Mastercard “to expand and accelerate innovation around digital asset technology and make it safer and easier for people and institutions to buy, spend and hold cryptocurrencies and digital assets.”

Here are the seven startups:

– GK8 (Israel) is a self-managed end-to-end institutional crypto custody platform

– Mintable (Singapore) is a non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace

– Stacs (Singapore) provides a blockchain infrastructure for the financial industry

– Supraoracles (Switzerland) is a blockchain oracle

– Taurus (Switzerland) provides enterprise-grade infrastructure to manage any digital assets, including crypto assets, digital currencies and tokenized assets covering issuance, custody, asset servicing and trading

– Uphold (USA) is a crypto investment and payment service provider for consumers and businesses

– Domain Money (USA) looks to build an investment platform to bridge the gap between digital assets and traditional finance for retail investors

The announcement details that the Start Path program has helped more than 250 startups since 2014. The program now provides crypto startups access to Mastercard’s “latest tools and solutions to help these companies scale their innovations and cutting-edge technologies.”

Mastercard elaborated how the new program works:

“These startups use the program to connect with our ecosystem of banks, merchants, partners and digital players across the globe to deliver new solutions.”

Jess Turner, executive vice president of New Digital Infrastructure and Fintech said:

“Mastercard has been engaging with the digital currency ecosystem since 2015.”

“As a leading technology player, we believe we can play a key role in digital assets, helping to shape the industry, and provide consumer protections and security. Part of our role is to forge the future of cryptocurrency, and we’re doing that by bridging mainstream financial principles with digital assets innovations.”

Mastercard recently announced an enhancement to its card program for cryptocurrency wallets and exchanges, with the aim to make it “simpler for partners to convert cryptocurrency to traditional fiat currency.”

Source: Mastercard's New Program Helps Crypto Startups To Scale Innovation – Fintechs.fi