BCG and Ripple published a great report on tokenization this week.
Big week for US crypto regulation:
Big week for AI: Google released Firebase Studio, a direct competitor to AI-coding posterchild Cursor. And Mira Murati’s (ex OpenAI) Thinking Machines Lab is now raising $2B at a $10B valuation in the largest seed round in history.
Think Gartner-style market maps, maturity scores, and side-by-side vendor benchmarks — but built for the pace of crypto and AI.
Kraken partners with Mastercard to enable crypto payments for customers in the United Kingdom and Europe.
The goal? Enabling users to spend crypto assets at 150M+ merchants.
Stepping back: Kraken launched Kraken Pay in January, which supports instant, borderless payments across more than 300 cryptocurrencies and fiat currencies.
By the data: Over 200,000 Kraken customers are already using Kraken Pay.
Why it matters: By enabling card-based crypto spending, the partnership pushes digital assets into everyday commerce, pressuring more institutions to follow and cementing crypto’s role in the global payments stack. Moreover, with credit cards dominating payments in the US and UK, Kraken is meeting users where they already spend.
“Our customers want to be able to easily pay for real-world goods and services with their cryptocurrencies or stablecoins. Our partnership with Mastercard is a major step in realizing this vision. Together, we will unlock the full potential of crypto assets in everyday life, ensuring their long-term relevance and utility.”
