Mastercard has launched Stablecoin Security, a risk-intelligence tool that lets financial institutions screen dollar-pegged stablecoin payments for fraud, scams, and sanctions exposure across the full transaction lifecycle—generating a risk score before a payment settles and before funds ever move on-chain. The product extends the company's fraud-fighting playbook into digital assets.

The tool was unveiled Monday at Money20/20, the annual payments and fintech conference, in Las Vegas. Combining Mastercard's payment intelligence with blockchain analytics, it assesses risk across the entire life of a transaction, from the moment a payment is initiated through its movement on a public ledger.

Stablecoin Security is delivered through a platform-agnostic API and launched with two initial program participants: Borderless.xyz and Keyrails. Both companies are alumni of Mastercard's Start Path blockchain accelerator.

The launch targets a growing blind spot as stablecoins move deeper into cross-border and business-to-business payments. Mastercard cited a Bank for International Settlements study of 593 million stablecoin transfers in 2025, which found that nearly 60% were complex, multi-step transactions rather than simple one-to-one payments. That structure makes it harder for institutions to gauge risk across the whole payment journey, the company said. Screening payments for sanctioned parties and fraud indicators is a longstanding compliance obligation in traditional finance, and the tool brings that same checkpoint to dollar-pegged tokens moving across public ledgers.

The tool analyzes signals including where funds originated, exposure to restricted parties, and scam indicators. The resulting risk score, produced before a payment settles, slots into existing compliance and fraud workflows at financial institutions, according to the company.

"Stablecoins are creating new possibilities for value exchange, but financial institutions need the right intelligence and controls to participate with confidence," said Ann Johnson, Mastercard's executive vice president of security solutions, framing the tool as an extension of the company's fraud capabilities into digital assets.

The announcement is the latest sign of Mastercard weaving stablecoins into its core business, extending a push that spans everything from its BVNK-powered Global Money Platform to AI-agent payments. The company recently rolled out the Global Money Platform with BVNK, the stablecoin infrastructure firm it acquired in August, allowing businesses to hold and move both fiat and stablecoins through a single connection.

Mastercard has also secured a New York BitLicense—the virtual currency license issued by the state's Department of Financial Services—covering stablecoins and tokenized deposits, moved to enable AI-agent payments alongside Coinbase and Ripple, and expanded its stablecoin settlement support to include Circle's USDC and Ripple's RLUSD.

Mastercard said Stablecoin Security builds on existing tools such as Crypto Credential and Crypto Secure, and that it plans to extend the product's reach in 2027, including through BVNK. The solution is launching first in North America, with worldwide availability expected next year.