Mastercard, Western Union tap Solana Foundation's new enterprise developer toolbox

Mastercard, Western Union, and Worldpay are all joining as early users of the Solana Foundation's new enterprise development platform, an AI-powered toolbox to help institutions build on the smart contract-friendly blockchain.

According to an announcement on Tuesday, the Solana Developer Platform (SDP) gathers together "best-in-class infrastructure across the Solana ecosystem into a single, unified interface," including tools for launching real-world assets, payments technologies, and other onchain products.

Mastercard, for instance, is tapping SDP to help expand its stablecoin operations, according to Executive Vice President, Blockchain & Digital Assets Raj Dhamodharan.

"The next phase of digital asset innovation will be defined by practical use cases that integrate seamlessly with existing financial systems," Dhamodharan said. "As an early user of Solana Developer Platform, we're helping enable direct stablecoin settlement for customers on select blockchain networks — beginning with Solana — combining the speed and programmability of blockchain with the reliability, security and global reach of the Mastercard network."

SDP will feature three core API modules, including an “Issuance module” for launching onchain tokenized deposits like GENIUS-compliant stablecoins, a “Payments module” for orchestrating fiat and stablecoin flows — including on- and off-ramping, and B2B transactions — as well as a “Trading module” that supports features like atomic swaps, vaults, and foreign exchange.

The move comes amid rising institutional interest in tokenization and stablecoin use cases, broadly understood as “real-world assets.” While Solana today captures just a fraction of the total onchain RWA market, the entire sector is continuing to grow month after month, according to The Block’s data.

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Further, new offerings that were hardly conceivable just years ago — like onchain equities, including stock perpetual futures — are coming online, often on Solana first.

Other companies, like Western Union, are turning to blockchains like Solana not to reinvent the wheel but to modernize their operations.

"Solana Developer Platform lets us extend what Western Union already does best — moving money reliably across borders — by adding an API‑driven, on‑chain layer that can orchestrate fiat and stablecoin flows end‑to‑end," Western Union VP Digital Assets Malcolm Clarke said. "It’s not a replacement for our network; it’s a modern extension that helps us innovate faster, expand new use cases, and bring more cross‑border activity on‑chain in a scalable, compliant way."

According to the announcement, AI coding platforms like Claude Code by Anthropic and Codex by OpenAI will be able to use SDP “out of the box.”

The SDP platform is supported by over 20 infrastructure partners at launch to help with node and wallet infrastructure setups, as well as compliance and onramping needs. The 11 initial wallet service providers include major custodians like Anchorage Digital, BitGo, and Coinbase, as well as non-custodial providers like Fireblocks.

Major analytics firms Chainalysis, Elliptic, Range, and TRM Labs will offer compliance assistance across know-your-customer, know-your-business, and FATF’s Travel Rule requirements, while top fiat-to-crypto links like Bridge, BVNK, Lightspark, Modern Treasury, and MoonPay will power the SDP’s payments module.

Last week, Mastercard said it would acquire BVNK for up to $1.8 billion, while Stripe acquired Bridge in 2024.