Mastercard brings fraud and sanctions screening to stablecoin payments

Mastercard announced the launch of Stablecoin Security at Money20/20 USA on October 19, 2026, which enables banks to identify fraud and sanction risks ahead of time when their clients make stablecoin payments on-chain.

The company isn’t building another payment network. It aims to provide the risk intelligence needed by banks as more business payments move onto public blockchains.

A risk score before funds move on-chain

Mastercard has stated that its API is functional across various blockchain platforms and uses payment data and blockchain analytics. Prior to authorizing a payment, the API identifies the source of funds, reviews for potential signs of fraud and sanctions exposures, and assigns a score based on identified level of risk.

Borderless.xyz and Keyrails are the first partners. The service launches in North America, with worldwide availability expected in 2027.

Ann Johnson, Mastercard’s Security Solutions Executive Vice President, explained why security solutions matters:

Stablecoins are creating new possibilities for value exchange, but financial institutions need the right intelligence and controls to participate with confidence.

Mastercard’s BVNK platform widens the bet

The launch comes after the announcement of Mastercard and BVNK’s Global Money Platform on October 15.

After acquiring BVNK in August, Mastercard is bringing fiat accounts, stablecoins, currency conversions and local payouts together through one API.

Nuvei and Marqeta are two of the early adopters. Mastercard Move is already reaching upwards of 17 billion endpoints. This reach is projected to extend to about 200 countries and 40 currencies by 2027.

JPMorgan puts bank money on Ethereum

On October 19, J.P. Morgan introduced its JPM Coin deposit token to Ethereum, according to a report by Cryptopolitan.

Unlike retail stablecoins, JPMD is a representation of bank deposits and is limited to approved institutions only.

Ethereum has approximately $147.62 billion worth of stablecoins present on it, which includes Tether’s $78.8 billion and Circle’s $45.90 billion. However, the volume of transactions of JPMD has not yet been revealed by JPMorgan.

The cross-border costs screening cannot erase

Improved screening could help making stablecoin transfers more secure, while it does not automatically lead to cheaper transactions. Furthermore, it is hard to estimate how many of stablecoin transactions can actually be considered as payments.

A research report by BIS published in June analyzed stablecoin transfers in 2025 and found that about 60% of the 593 million transfers were complicated transactions rather than straightforward payments. In order to estimate the volume of true payments, Visa has excluded bots, bridges and other non-organic transfers from analytics.

While stablecoins are utilized for payment transactions, costs still exist. In a paper published on October 19 by Wenxin Du, Catherine Huang, and David Scharfstein, it was found that foreign exchange fees, withdrawal fees, and a lack of liquidity can often prevent people from actually being able to save money.

Mastercard can aid banks in evaluating transaction risks, but it does not have the means to completely eradicate costs.

Regulators warn the gaps are cross-border

The Financial Stability Board warned on October 12 that global stablecoins can expose risks beyond any single regulator’s oversight.

The IMF also cautioned that fragmented networks and limited access to safe settlement assets could hinder tokenization.

Mastercard’s screening may give banks greater confidence to use stablecoins. But confidence alone won’t drive adoption. Payments must also be affordable, reliable and practical across borders.

If you're reading this, you’re already ahead. Stay there with our newsletter.