SoFi Moves $25bn Card Programme to Stablecoin Settlement with Mastercard

SoFi Technologies and Mastercard have begun processing card transactions using stablecoin settlement across SoFi Bank's debit and credit programmes. The deployment brings SoFiUSD to the card network's infrastructure, following the partnership the firms unveiled in March.

SoFi Bank shifted its entire $25bn card programme to stablecoin-based transaction settlement powered by SoFiUSD. The bank describes SoFiUSD as the first stablecoin issued by a nationally chartered US bank.

SoFiUSD is redeemable one-to-one for US dollars. Its reserves consist mainly of cash held by the bank.

The stablecoin is available for institutional users as well as SoFi members. It is designed for payments, settlement and other financial applications rather than speculative trading.

The launch changes how card issuers, acquirers and merchants can manage settlement and liquidity through existing payments infrastructure, the companies said.

SoFi is in active discussions with large merchants across the US about stablecoin-based settlement arrangements. Those talks include companies ranging from multinational retailers to technology service platforms.

Merchants do not need to hold stablecoins, build new infrastructure or change how they operate, SoFi CEO Anthony Noto said. Through SoFi's Big Business Banking platform, any merchant can receive settlement funds instantly in a SoFi Bank account and withdraw to cash around the clock and at zero cost.

SoFi and Mastercard also said they will examine further uses for SoFiUSD settlement on Mastercard's network. These include cross-border payments, remittances and other money movement use cases.

With SoFi, we're moving beyond exploration to implementation, bringing regulated stablecoin settlement into a live production environment while preserving the trust, scale and safeguards expected from Mastercard, said Mastercard global head of digital commercialisation Sherri Haymond. This is another step toward giving businesses more choice in how money moves.