Mastercard Leans Into Agentic Commerce and Stablecoins While Card Volumes Rise

Card spending continued to climb in Mastercard’s fourth quarter, as the payments giant laid out a roadmap that reaches beyond plastic and taps agentic commerce and stablecoins as emerging rails for how people pay and get paid.

Mastercard CEO Michael Miebach said during an earnings call Thursday (Jan. 29) that the company closed 2025 with momentum, posting fourth-quarter net revenue growth of 15% and value-added services growth of 22% on a currency-neutral basis.

He framed the results against a backdrop of persistent macro uncertainty, while pending patterns have held steady.

“We see a truly savvy and intentional consumer,” he told analysts, pointing to shoppers using rewards, data and loyalty programs to manage affordability while continuing to spend.

Mastercard has not seen tariff changes materially alter consumer behavior, he said, adding that overall spending trends have remained healthy into the first weeks of the new year. In the latest quarter, GDV in the United States increased by 4% as credit growth clocked in at 6% and debit growth was 2%.

Alongside core card growth, Mastercard is positioning itself for what it views as the next phase of digital commerce.

“For us, stablecoins and agentic commerce are emerging opportunities, ones where Mastercard has a natural role to play,” Miebach said. “…For us, it is another currency we can support within our network.”

Mastercard has spent more than a decade in digital assets, moving beyond trading use cases to support stablecoin settlement, co-branded programs and partnerships with firms such as Ripple, he said.

The company is also extending its AgentPay framework, which is designed to bring identity, trust and consumer protections into artificial intelligence-driven transactions. Mastercard has enabled U.S. issuers to participate in AgentPay and expects to extend that capability globally by the end of the first quarter, he said.

“It’s early days, but we are ready,” Miebach said of agentic commerce, adding that Mastercard is already piloting agent-based payments in regions including Asia, the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates.

Traditional card usage continues to provide the financial foundation for those long-term bets.

Chief Financial Officer Sachin Mehra said during the call that there was worldwide gross dollar volume growth of 7% in the quarter, with cross-border volumes rising 14% globally as travel and non-travel spending increased. Contactless penetration reached 77% of in-person purchase transactions, up five percentage points from a year earlier.

Tokenization also advanced. Management commentary on the call indicated that nearly 40% of all Mastercard transactions are now tokenized, spanning both card-present and card-not-present use cases. That shift is contributing to higher approval rates and supporting growth in fraud prevention and authentication services.

Mastercard Move, the company’s disbursements and remittances platform, posted transaction growth exceeding 35% for both the quarter and full year, supported by an expanding network of more than 17 billion endpoints worldwide.

Mehra said operating income rose 17% and as value-added services revenue increased 22%, with demand across digital, authentication, security, consumer engagement and business insights as key drivers. About 60% of those services revenues remain tied directly to network activity, reinforcing what management described as a virtuous cycle between payments volume and services adoption.

Looking ahead, Mastercard expects full-year 2026 net revenue growth at the high end of a low double-digit range on a currency-neutral basis, excluding acquisitions.

Shares rose 1.5% in early trading Thursday.

Management also addressed policy proposals that could reshape U.S. credit.

On potential credit card interest rate caps, Miebach warned of unintended consequences, particularly for low-income consumers.

A blanket cap could restrict access to credit for vulnerable populations, he said, adding that Mastercard does not set rates, although it remains engaged with banks and regulators on affordability.

Turning to the Credit Card Competition Act, Miebach said the bill has seen little progress since its introduction in 2023 and now faces unified industry opposition.

The proposal risks shifting payment choice away from consumers, offers no guarantee of merchant savings being passed through, and could weaken cybersecurity by encouraging routing to the cheapest rather than safest networks, he said.

“The benefits of the bill are yet to be proven, while the risks are pretty clear,” Miebach said.

As Mastercard enters 2026, executives highlighted continued investment in infrastructure, data centers and global partnerships, alongside deeper expansion of services tied to cybersecurity, data and AI. Miebach described agentic commerce as one of the AI-driven use cases most likely to reach consumers quickly, with Mastercard focused on setting standards for identity, governance and trust across emerging ecosystems.

“It’s hard to predict when and how it’s going to scale to what degree, but the train is leaving the station, and we’re right in the front of it,” he said.

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