Trump orders Fed to review crypto payment access, Mastercard acquires BVNK for $1.8B, Revolut ships Dogecoin physical card
President Trump signed an executive order on May 19 directing federal financial agencies to review regulations that 'unduly impede' fintech and crypto companies from accessing Federal Reserve payment systems. Bank regulators have 90 days to identify specific barriers; the Fed has 120 days to report on expanding master account access to crypto firms. The order doesn't guarantee access. It starts the clock on a formal review. But for crypto card issuers, the signal is clear: the administration wants them plugged into the same payment infrastructure that traditional banks use. Today, most crypto cards rely on banking partners or intermediary processors to reach card networks. Direct Fed access would let issuers settle transactions faster, cut middleman costs, and reduce the 'debanking' risk that has plagued the industry. Combined with the CLARITY Act advancing through the Senate, the US regulatory posture toward crypto payments shifted meaningfully in a single week.
Mastercard is acquiring stablecoin infrastructure company BVNK in a deal worth up to $1.8 billion and simultaneously launched its Crypto Partner Program with 85+ partners including Binance, MetaMask, and Circle. SoFiUSD is becoming a settlement option across Mastercard's network. The acquisition follows Visa's $7B stablecoin settlement milestone from the week prior and Kraken's $600M purchase of Reap. Both major card networks are now buying, not building, their stablecoin infrastructure. Mastercard's move is arguably bigger in scope: BVNK handles stablecoin-to-fiat conversion, cross-border settlement, and merchant payouts, while the partner program creates a formal onramp for crypto companies to integrate with Mastercard rails. For cardholders, this means more Mastercard-network crypto cards with native stablecoin settlement: less reliance on legacy banking partners, faster settlement, and potentially lower fees.
Revolut launched its first physical crypto-specific card, a Dogecoin-themed Visa debit with an integrated LED that lights up on contactless tap. The card converts 200+ cryptocurrencies to fiat at real-time exchange rates with no additional FX fees, supports Apple Pay and Google Pay, and offers cashback in DOGE on eligible transactions. Available now across the UK and EEA (excluding Hungary, Switzerland, and Portugal). The card itself is a marketing play (Revolut already lets users spend crypto via its standard card), but it's significant as the first physical crypto-branded product from a neobank with 50 million users. It's the 'crypto card for normies' bet: familiar form factor, meme branding, mainstream infrastructure underneath.
Source: CoinDesk Related: Revolut Crypto Card.
Market Context: Two forces are reshaping the crypto card landscape simultaneously. On the regulatory front, the US moved twice in one week: the CLARITY Act preserving card cashback cleared committee, then Trump ordered the Fed to review crypto firms' access to payment rails. The message from Washington is that crypto payments are being integrated, not restricted. On the infrastructure front, both card networks are now acquiring their stablecoin plumbing: Mastercard bought BVNK for $1.8B, Visa's settlement pilot hit $7B, and Kraken and Exodus bought their own card-issuing rails in the weeks before. The era of crypto cards running on borrowed infrastructure is ending. The networks and exchanges are building (or buying) their own stacks.