Crypto payment startup Kulipa partners with Mastercard and Argent on debit card

“We’re proud to be launching with Argent as our first non-custodial wallet and working alongside Mastercard to continue contributing to the global adoption of everyday crypto payments,” Kulipa co-founder and CEO Axel Cateland said in a statement.

The Kulipa-branded card converts Circle’s USDC +0.40% or Paxos-branded stablecoins to fiat in the background, meaning merchants do not need to integrate crypto payment tools. “This process ensures a smooth debit payment experience for any Mastercard user and merchant anywhere in the world, with on-chain settlement on almost any blockchain,” the press release said.

This represents the latest step by Mastercard and its rival Visa as the traditional payment giants move deeper into the crypto industry. Mastercard, for instance, launched crypto debit cards with major blockchain infrastructure providers, including 1inch and MetaMask , and has been working with hardware wallet firm Ledger since late 2023. For its part, Visa has tapped Solana for cross-border USDC stablecoin payments .

Argent, a DeFi-focused wallet that claims to have over two million users , is primarily focused on building on the Ethereum scaling layer Starknet. Argent is also a pioneer in account abstraction, a way of making smart contract-based wallets easier to use.

According to Argent CEO Itamar Lesuisse, the new debit card will leverage zk-technology to ensure low-cost and scalable transactions. "With the integration of zk technology, users can trust that their transactions are secure and fully non-custodial, whilst also benefiting from low fees and true scalability,” Lesuisse said.

Earlier this month, Kulipa announced a $3 million seed funding round co-led by Fabric Ventures and White Star Capital. The Paris-based startup was founded in 2023 to provide a platform for non-custodial wallets to issue crypto payment cards.

Kulipa can settle stablecoin transactions on several blockchains, including Ethereum, a number of Ethereum layer 2s and Solana.

“Although stablecoin adoption has seen exponential growth in the last few years, its most natural use case, payments, has not yet reached the masses” Sep Alavi, general partner at White Star, said in a statement.

Kulipa was one of five blockchain startups included in Mastercard’s latest Start Path incubator program.