Mastercard to Expand Crypto Team With Two Senior Hires to Drive Blockchain Initiatives

Mastercard is deepening its push into crypto with plans to hire two senior leaders focused on digital assets and blockchain.

The payments giant is recruiting for a Vice President, Head of Digital Assets Ecosystem Growth, and a Vice President, Head of Financial Institutions (FI) Growth, both based in the U.S.

“Excited to share two open roles on my team as Mastercard continues to build the next generation of payments and drive innovation across digital assets,” Raj Dhamodharan, Mastercard’s head of crypto and blockchain, wrote in a LinkedIn post.

The first role will oversee strategic partnerships across the digital asset sector, working with issuers, infrastructure providers and startups to scale solutions like Mastercard’s Multi-Token Network (MTN) and Crypto Credential. The second role will focus on collaborating with financial institutions to develop blockchain uses, such as business payments, cross-border transactions and tokenized assets.

Mastercard has been among the most active traditional finance firms exploring crypto, establishing ties across the ecosystem for years. Most recently, the company announced plans to integrate more stablecoins into its küresel payments network, building on existing support for Circle’s USDC. It is also rolling out stablecoin-based cross-border transactions through Mastercard Move.

In an interview with CoinDesk earlier this year, Dhamodharan said Mastercard’s goal is to act as a bridge between blockchain networks and traditional finance, providing regulatory clarity while enabling new business models.

He added that financial institutions need to “be very open to making [crypto] available as broadly as possible.”