Mastercard to acquire cryptocurrency company CipherTrace

Mastercard Inc. MA, +0.11% plans to acquire CipherTrace, a cryptocurrency intelligence company that helps with security and fraud monitoring in the world of digital assets. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed. Mastercard said that its own offerings, combined with those from CipherTrace, will "provide businesses with greater transparency to help identify and understand their risks and to help manage their digital-asset regulatory and compliance obligations." The payments giant further sees the deal as a way to "differentiate its card and real-time payments infrastructure, allowing customers and stakeholders globally to build upon and benefit from the solutions to protect their consumers and comply with regulations, as they build their own virtual asset offerings." Mastercard expects the CipherTrace deal to close this calendar year. Its shares are up 0.7% in Thursday morning trading. They've lost 2.8% over the past three months as the S&P 500 SPX, -0.46% has gained 7.1%.