MASTERCARD accelerates its on-chain payment deployment, Polygon expands its stablecoin offering KRW1.

TL;DR

Mastercard significantly accelerated its on-chain payment deployment between November and December 2025, expanding Crypto Credential to self-custodied wallets (November 18-20) and partnering with Thunes to enable stablecoin wallet payments (November 14), supporting merchant payments and global transfers for major stablecoins such as USDC and PYUSD. On December 4, Polygon officially launched the KRW1 Korean Won stablecoin issued by BDACS, with Woori Bank providing 1:1 collateral and real-time proof of reserves. Positioned for payment, remittance, and corporate settlement scenarios in South Korea and the Asia-Pacific region, both companies are jointly promoting the mainstreaming of Web3 payment infrastructure.

Mastercard accelerates its on-chain payment strategy.

Crypto Credential Self-Centered Wallet Extension

Core features and timeline :

• November 18-20, 2025 : Mastercard announced that Crypto Credential supports self-custodied wallets, replacing complex blockchain addresses with verified username aliases.
• Initial partners : Mercuryo as the first KYC issuer, and Polygon as the first supported blockchain network.
• Technical features : Uses Soulbound Tokens to mark verified status, reducing transaction error rates and enhancing compliance.

Reasons for choosing Polygon :

• High throughput and low cost advantages
• Rio's upgraded payment infrastructure reliability
• Speed performance that meets the needs of Web3 payment scenarios

Stablecoin wallet payment integration

Mastercard Move platform upgrade (November 14, 2025):

• A new stablecoin wallet has been added as a payment endpoint, alongside bank cards, bank accounts, and cash.
• Supports merchants and gig economy workers to receive stablecoin payments, regardless of the settlement currency.
• Enables 24/7, near real-time global money transfer capabilities.

Supported stablecoin ecosystem :

Strategic Cooperation and Industry Activities

Key partnerships :

• Thunes Integration : Embeds stablecoin wallet payments into Mastercard Move, serving banks and payment service providers.
• Mercuryo : The first self-custodied wallet authentication partner
• Polygon Labs : Native Blockchain Support and Technical Collaboration

Binance Blockchain Week Event (December 4, 2025):

• Christian Rau, Head of Digital Assets at Mastercard, speaks with Reece Merrick, an executive at Ripple.
• Discussing application scenarios of XRP and RLUSD in value transfer on XRPL

Polygon's KRW1 stablecoin ecosystem expansion

Release details and technical architecture

Release date and publisher :

• December 4, 2025 : BDACS officially deployed the KRW1 stablecoin on the Polygon network.
• The proof-of-concept phase confirms the performance of the process from fiat currency deposits to on-chain settlement.

Collateral and Transparency Mechanisms :

• 1:1 full collateral : backed by Korean won reserves held by Korean commercial banks (including Woori Bank)
• Real-time proof of reserves : Provides on-chain verifiable reserve data via the Woori Bank Direct API.
• Regulatory Compliance : Complies with South Korean digital asset regulatory requirements

Application scenarios and functional positioning

Core use case matrix :

Technical characteristics :

• Leveraging Polygon's high throughput to process large-scale transactions
• Low-cost structure reduces the cost of small payments
• Supports real-time settlement and interoperability of Web3 financial infrastructure.

Partners and Ecosystem Building

Key partners :

• Woori Bank : Reserve Custody and API Access, Co-hosting the Institutional Session of the 2025 Korea Blockchain Week (December)
• Circle : Sign MOU in October-November 2025, and test KRW1 in the Arc ecosystem and StableFX integration.
• Polygon Labs : Provides technical support and integrates existing payment frameworks (Stripe, Circle, Mastercard).

Multi-chain strategy :

• BDACS plans to deploy KRW1 across multiple chains, with Polygon as the initial network.
• Positioned as an infrastructure for enterprise-level workflows and global FX trading

On-chain data and early adoption

On-chain performance of UTC as of December 8, 2025 :

• Contract address : Not indexed by public block explorers (only 4 days after launch)
• Total supply/circulation : No publicly available data.
• Transaction volume and active addresses : Due to the short time since launch, on-chain activity data has not been obtained.
• Exchange Support : Not yet listed on major centralized exchanges (Binance, Bybit, Coinbase, etc.)

Social media influence :

• Polygon's official tweet about KRW1 has been viewed 54,010 times.
• BDACS official tweet views: 12,356
• CEO Sandeep Nailwal confirmed the tweet (December 6): 20,367 views

Market impact and ecological significance

The integration of traditional finance and Web3 is accelerating.

Mastercard's strategic positioning :

• Building a TradeFi-Web3 bridge with Crypto Credential and Mastercard Move
• Integrating stablecoin payment capabilities into a network of 150 million merchants, achieving mainstream adoption while adhering to compliance.
• Support for self-hosted wallet authentication lowers the barrier to Web3 payments.

Industry benchmarking data :

• In Q4 2024, stablecoin trading volume reached $6 trillion, approaching Visa/Mastercard's settlement volume of $6.88 trillion.
• Mastercard's strategy aims to capture market share in this rapidly growing on-chain payments market.

Polygon's leading position in the stablecoin ecosystem

Regional stablecoin strategy :

• KRW1 (Korean Won), ARC (Indian Rupee, planned for Q1 2026), and JPYC (Japanese Yen) will form an Asia-Pacific stablecoin matrix.
• Polygon is experiencing a surge in transaction volume in the micro-payment and small-amount payment sectors, with significant growth in Latin America and Asia.

Technological moat :

• Low fees (compared to the Ethereum mainnet) attract high-frequency, small-amount payment scenarios.
• High throughput supports enterprise-level settlement needs
• Existing integrations (Revolut stablecoin trading/staking) provide a liquidity foundation.

Community sentiment and narrative themes

Mastercard related discussions :

• Positive sentiment prevails, and the community sees it as a signal that is accelerating mainstream adoption.
• EMVCo's agent payment standard is described as "the biggest revolution since click-to-pay," focusing on AI-managed transactions.
• Integration examples such as Linea L2 debit card demonstrate everyday consumption scenarios using wETH and stablecoins.

KRW1 related feedback :

• Bullish sentiment is evident, and the Polygon community views it as a utility milestone.
• Analysts emphasize the institutional adoption potential brought about by compliance and multi-chain strategies.
• Media roundtables and keynote speeches at Korea Blockchain Week boosted market awareness.

in conclusion

The recent moves by Mastercard and Polygon mark a key shift in on-chain payments from technological experimentation to commercial application. Mastercard, through the integration of Crypto Credential with stablecoin wallets, connects its network of 150 million merchants to the Web3 payment track, achieving a seamless extension of traditional financial infrastructure; Polygon, through the compliant issuance of its KRW1 stablecoin and Woori Bank's real-time proof-of-reserves, has established a leading technological position in the Asia-Pacific stablecoin market.

The synergy between the two is reflected in the fact that Mastercard provides a compliant merchant acceptance network for stablecoins, while Polygon provides low-cost, high-performance infrastructure for regional stablecoins. Although KRW1's on-chain data is still in its early stages (only 4 days after launch), its 1:1 collateralization, real-time proof-of-reserve, and multi-chain expansion strategy lay the foundation for institutional adoption.

In the short term, focus on KRW1's penetration rate in South Korean payment scenarios, the growth of on-chain activity, and its listing progress on exchanges; in the medium term, observe the synergistic effect between Mastercard Move stablecoin payment merchant adoption data and the Polygon regional stablecoin matrix (KRW/INR/JPY). These developments all point to one trend: Web3 payment infrastructure is moving from the periphery to the core of the mainstream financial system.