Mastercard launches The Belle Block

Mastercard, alongside leading industry influencers, announced the launch of The Belle Block™, a new community focused on educating and empowering women and non-binary individuals to benefit from Web3 technology and crypto. Mastercard believes in the power of technology and its ability to build a better future that includes everyone. The technology company is creating a platform that prioritizes education, listening and learning from a diverse community - bringing more people into the digital ecosystem safely and securely.

“We are energized to collaborate, listen and co-innovate in support of business and consumer needs,” said Jorn Lambert, Chief Digital Officer, Mastercard. “Today marks the start of an exciting and forward-thinking journey to together bring more women and underserved communities to the table in the Web3 and crypto world.”

Today’s crypto climate allows for a joint opportunity to look ahead, inform, and give more people the choice to explore and engage in the crypto ecosystem and better understand the power of blockchain as an underlying technology to build a better future. Today women and men are using crypto for similar reasons - investing, buying, trading and opening wallets. In fact, 75% of women who are familiar with crypto agree they would use it more if they understood it better.

Powered by Mastercard’s Global Crypto and Blockchain team, this new group focuses on partnering with the Web3 community and those interested in joining to educate more women and focus on delivering on the key building blocks of The Belle Block’s mission: Business Growth, Education, Leadership, Legal & Regulatory Advocacy and Entrepreneurship.

Mastercard recently launched its 2022 New Payments Index, a global survey among 35,000+ consumers in 40 countries, which found those already familiar with the crypto space, women especially, have a heightened interest in expanding their knowledge. Nine out of 10 women have heard of cryptocurrency, but their current understanding of crypto and digital asset terminology is less robust than men, including non-fungible tokens (NFTs) – 58% of women are aware vs. 75% of men, blockchain – 51% of women are aware vs. 71% of men, central bank digital currencies (CBDC) – 59% of women are aware vs. 69% of men, and stablecoins – 51% of women are aware vs. 65% of men. There is a clear opportunity to engage women by initiating a platform to inform, exchange and educate to help bridge this gender gap.