Mastercard has deepened its partnership with Circle to allow settlement of transactions in the USDC and EURC stablecoins for the card network’s acquirers across Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The move will let merchants and payment processors in the region receive funds in dollar- and euro-denominated digital tokens, potentially cutting the time and cost of cross-border transfers. Circle separately announced a strategic collaboration with banking-software provider Finastra that will integrate USDC settlement into Finastra’s platform, which supports more than US$5 trillion in cross-border payments each day. The companies said the tie-up will give thousands of banks and other financial institutions access to blockchain-based rails without overhauling their existing infrastructure. The two agreements highlight the growing traction of stablecoins in mainstream finance. According to a recent industry report, dollar-pegged and other asset-linked tokens now handle more monthly transaction volume than Visa and PayPal combined, underscoring why incumbent payment networks and financial-technology vendors are moving to embed stablecoin settlement in their services.