Mastercard Q3 revenue rises 14% to $14.2B as stablecoin push widens
Mastercard Q3 net revenue rose 14% to $14.2B and EPS 21% to $5.31 as it rolled out a stablecoin money platform after the BVNK deal and pushed agentic payments.
FINTECHNEWS
Hana Kimura
10/29/20261 min read
Mastercard reported third-quarter net revenue of $14.2 billion on Oct. 29, up 14% year on year on a currency-neutral basis, while net income rose 18% to $7.1 billion and diluted earnings per share climbed 21% to $5.31.
Growth was led by value-added services and solutions, which rose 19%, while payment network revenue increased 11%, according to the company's earnings call. Gross dollar volume grew 7% worldwide, cross-border volume 11% and switched transactions 9%. Contactless payments made up 81% of in-person transactions, and the number of Mastercard cards in circulation rose 5% to 3.8 billion.
Stablecoins and AI agents
Mastercard used the quarter to build out its digital-asset business. It completed the acquisition of BVNK in August and has launched the Mastercard Global Money Platform, which lets banks and fintechs offer accounts to hold, convert and send both fiat currency and stablecoins. Nuvei and Marqeta are among the first companies to integrate it. CEO Michael Miebach said the timing of the BVNK deal was right but that the market is still early.
Crypto also weighed on part of the business. Ling Hai, presenting results for the first time as chief financial officer, said lower crypto purchases were among the reasons for a sequential decline in card-not-present volume outside travel.
On agentic commerce, Mastercard pointed to partnerships with Shopify and OpenAI around its Agent Pay and Agent Connect products. Miebach argued that fully tokenized transactions are the right model for AI agents and that one-time virtual card numbers break the consumer experience.
For the full year, Mastercard expects net revenue growth at the high end of the low double digits on a currency-neutral basis, excluding acquisitions, and will provide 2027 guidance next quarter. Some revenue shifted from the fourth quarter into the third, which the company said will offset in Q4. Rival Visa reported 13% revenue growth earlier in the week.
Source: Mastercard, BigGo Finance, FinanceFeeds