Mastercard is partnering with Mercuryo and Polygon to give its customer's self-custody wallet names. This new update would replace long hexadecimal addresses with simple username-style identifiers, giving users a familiar payment flow that mirrors Web2 apps like Venmo or PayPal.
Polygon will be supporting the rollout with its high throughput, low fees, and recent upgrades that improve finality and eliminate reorg risks. Mercuryo, on the other hand, will verify users through KYC checks and issue their aliases, allowing each wallet to be linked to a verified identity.
Once they are verified, users can link a human-readable alias to their self-custody wallet or request a soulbound token on Polygon that acts as proof of ownership.
Mastercard’s aim is to remove the friction and uncertainty of copying complex wallet strings—an error-prone process that has long hindered mainstream adoption. By combining username-style routing with cryptographic identity verification, the company is attempting to standardize how self-custody transactions should function across networks and service providers.
Polygon Labs CEO Marc Boiron called the expansion the moment “self-custody becomes simple,” while Mastercard’s EVP of Blockchain and Digital Assets, Raj Dhamodharan, emphasized how the partnership blends Mastercard’s payment infrastructure with Polygon’s reliability and Mercuryo’s verification capabilities.
Mastercard’s Crypto Credential program originally launched in 2023 inside custodial exchanges and has since grown to millions of users across multiple jurisdictions. Extending it to self-custody wallets marks a deeper evolution of the initiative—one that merges user sovereignty with compliance frameworks such as Travel Rule data exchange, allowing safer, more regulated cross-border transfers without sacrificing decentralization.
This expansion fits into Mastercard’s broader, rapidly intensifying push into crypto throughout 2024 and 2025. The company has launched debit cards with Kraken in Europe, partnered with MetaMask on a self-custody payments card, and integrated with Chainlink to allow its global cardholders to purchase crypto directly on-chain. These partnerships form an emerging ecosystem where identity, payments, and liquidity all converge across decentralized rails.
Crypto Credential acts as the identity foundation of that ecosystem. With verified wallet aliases, non-custodial payment cards, and on-chain purchase flows, Mastercard is building an integrated framework that makes digital assets function more like traditional finance without stripping away self-custody.
Mastercard’s move to give crypto wallets verified usernames is more than a UX upgrade—it’s an attempt to define the missing identity standard for Web3. By combining KYC verification with soulbound tokens and enterprise-grade aliasing, Mastercard is positioning itself at the intersection of compliance, usability, and decentralized ownership.
If successful, this initiative could become the default identity infrastructure for on-chain transactions, influencing everything from retail payments to DeFi access controls. The company isn’t just simplifying self-custody; it’s building the connective tissue between traditional payments and the next generation of blockchain-based financial rails.
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