Ex-Revolut duo's Bleap partners with Mastercard in latest push to take stablecoins mainstream

"Blockchain bank account" platform Bleap has signed a strategic partnership with payments giant Mastercard in the latest push to integrate stablecoin payments into traditional financial infrastructure.

Former Revolut employees Joao Alves and Guilherme Gomes co-founded Bleap, announcing last year they had raised $2.3 million in pre-seed funding, led by Consensys founder Joe Lubin's Ethereal Ventures, to build the platform, bringing the company to a $10 million post-money valuation. Bleap has since gone on to launch the beta version of its non-custodial wallet, offering simplified access to DeFi yields, multi-currency accounts, trading and exchange features, zero fees for buying or selling stablecoins and a Mastercard-powered debit card offering 2% cashback.

Since the beta launch in December, Bleap claims it has onboarded thousands and processed over $5 million in transactions, helping users save more than $100,000 in fees. The collaboration aims to accelerate this growth by leveraging Bleap's proprietary technology to enable other wallet providers to integrate directly with Mastercard's payments network to facilitate more seamless stablecoin payments, according to a statement shared exclusively with The Block.

"Today, hundreds of billions in stablecoins and other real-world assets exist on-chain, mimicking fintech e-money features and yet most payment infrastructure still relies on conversion through centralized intermediaries and Banking-as-a-Service solutions before it can be used for payments," the UK-incorporated and Poland-registered Virtual Asset Service Provider said. "Bleap's solution plugs stablecoins directly into traditional payment rails — eliminating intermediaries — and challenges conventional definitions of non-custodial wallets and fintechs."

"Bleap's technology enables stablecoins to be spent directly onchain — without conversions, intermediaries or customers losing custody — seamlessly integrating blockchain assets with Mastercard's global payment rails," Alves added. "This innovation will allow millions of self-custodial wallets from other providers to connect effortlessly with traditional financial systems without requiring further integrations. We are bringing stablecoins to the forefront of fintech."

The collaboration grants Bleap access to Mastercard's resources and global network, speeding up its international expansion. The initial focus will be on growing across Europe, followed by launches in Latin America, where demand for alternative financial solutions is increasing rapidly, the firm said.

"Digital currencies are a critical part of the global economy, so helping people and businesses embrace them by simplifying how they can be spent is essential," Mastercard Executive Vice President for Global Partnerships Scott Abrahams said. "Our Web3 card program is helping partners like Bleap harness the power of stablecoins to unlock new levels of accessibility, allowing consumers to conveniently and securely spend their digital assets anywhere Mastercard is accepted."

Mastercard has also partnered with several other crypto companies to enhance its Web3 card program, including MetaMask, Baanx and Ledger. The program aims to bridge the gap between traditional financial systems and decentralized finance by helping to integrate digital currencies like stablecoins into everyday payments.

Stablecoins' growing use case

Stablecoins have undoubtedly found product market fit, with a circulating supply of more than $225 billion and generating more than $5.1 trillion worth of global transactions in the first half of 2024, according to analysts at crypto asset manager Bitwise. That’s comparable to Visa's $6.5 trillion over the same period.

Notably, dominant stablecoin issuer Tether now holds over $115 billion in U.S. Treasuries — making it the 18th largest holder alongside sovereign nations like South Korea, Mexico and Germany, according to Treasury Department statistics.

There is also growing interest from investors in the disruptive impact of stablecoins amid potential new U.S. legislation and the broader regulatory landscape, with analysts at Bernstein expecting stablecoin legislation in 2025 to boost U.S. dollar dominance online, driven by crypto markets, cross-border payments and remittances. Banks and fintechs may adopt stablecoins, attracted by their revenue potential and financial integration, according to the analysts.

How Bleap works

Built on the Ethereum Layer 2 network Arbitrum, Bleap enables fast, gasless transactions and replaces traditional seed phrases with cloud storage and social logins, leveraging Portal's Multi-Party Computation technology. MPC is a cryptographic technology that can improve existing multi-sig techniques, effectively allowing wallet keys to be split between the user and Portal.

After users create a Bleap account, a smart wallet powered by account abstraction (ERC-4337) is deployed, delivering a secure and user-friendly experience akin to web2 for managing web3 assets, the team previously explained. Users can add stablecoins from external wallets or purchase them with fiat via Bleap's fee-free crypto on and off-ramping service.

Bleap's smart wallet supports the USDC, USDT, USDA and EURA stablecoins. It is only deployed on Arbitrum. However, Bleap's on and off-ramp and bridging services currently support Arbitrum, Ethereum, Polygon, BNB, Solana and Bitcoin. This also enables users to buy various cryptocurrencies on the supported networks and receive them directly into their external non-custodial wallet.

The biggest challenge the team faced was working out how to connect a public blockchain to a centralized system like Mastercard in a fast and cost-efficient way while maintaining self-custody, Alves said, explaining that there were some hurdles on the regulatory front.

Elaborating on the flow, Alves gave the example of a customer making a $5 payment at Starbucks. Bleap receives the request from Mastercard and verifies that the user's wallet holds an equivalent amount, such as 5 USDC. Once confirmed, Bleap approves the transaction and simultaneously recreates it onchain, charging the user's wallet in stablecoins. After receiving the stablecoins, Bleap converts them to the fiat equivalent and settles with Mastercard.

This process works because, when the card is created, the user authorizes Bleap's card signer to deduct funds from their wallet — a permission they can revoke at any time by canceling the card or setting custom limits for it. Unlike other crypto cards, Bleap doesn't require converting crypto to fiat first, saving on conversion and exchange fees.

The cashback element comes from a combination of multiple incentives Bleap receives from its partners, including interchange fees from merchants and subscription plans. Its infrastructure covers all blockchain transaction fees inside the Bleap wallet.

Additionally, Bleap plans to deploy its own token in 2026, with further details expected closer to the launch date.