1、M IdeaMasterCard Inc|North AmericaStablecoin Enablement&Agentic Commerce Present New Opp&Limited Risk Mastercard mgmts commentary at their 7/14 information session reinforced our view that MA can benefit from agentic commerce and stablecoin adoption by providing scale,acceptance,authentication,&secu

2、rity solutions to support enablement with limited cannibalization risk to card payments.Mastercard is prepared to bring its network scale and advantages to both stablecoin and agentic commerce enablement.Mastercard hosted an Information Session on July 14 to discuss the companys involvement and stra

3、tegy with agentic commerce and stablecoins,led by Jorn Lambert,Chief Product Officer,and Raj Seshadri,Chief Commercial Payments Officer.Their comments reinforced our view that these services represent incremental opportunity for Mastercard and that disruption to existing domestic P2M(Person to Merch

4、ant)card payments remains low.Managements commentary was very consistent with our view as it relates to the utility of stablecoins.Management echoed the views we outlined in our recent note,Seven Things to Know About Stablecoins,that stablecoins are very similar to prepaid cards.Recently there has b

5、een substantial investor buzz created by news that large retailers like Amazon and Walmart may introduce their own respective stablecoins.While there may be various operational uses(e.g.,payment of vendors),we think any merchant-sponsored stablecoins for customers will functionally be the equivalent

6、 of prepaid gift cards:the consumer will give funds to the merchant,which the merchant will hold(and generate float income),and the consumer can at some future date use the deposited funds for purchases of goods and services.In fact,we think most USD-backed stablecoins are really just deposit accoun