As with wrapped Bitcoin (wBTC) and wrapped Ether (wETH), Mastercard has completed a trial involving wrapped central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) on various blockchains.

The trial, according to the announcement made on October 12, involved participation from Cuscal and Mintable, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), and the nation's Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre CBDC.

According to Mastercard, the solution made it possible for a CBDC owner to buy a nonfungible token (NFT) listed on Ethereum in a live setting.

According to the payment processor, "the process 'locked' the necessary quantity of a pilot CBDC on the RBA's pilot CBDC platform and minted an equivalent quantity of wrapped pilot CBDC tokens on Ethereum."

“A pre-requisite of the test transaction was that the Ethereum wallets of both the buyer and seller, as well as the NFT marketplace smart contract, were ‘allow-listed’ within the platform. With all other transfers of the wrapped pilot CBDC blocked, it successfully demonstrated the platform’s ability to implement controls – even on public blockchains.”

The solution makes use of the Multi Token Network from Mastercard, which was released in June 2023 and combines blockchain technology with payment technology.

Zack Burcks, CEO and founder of Mintable, stated that "Together with Mastercard, we have identified a use case whereby digital currencies and NFTs can easily be linked, potentially stamping out fraud and theft, ending the loss of documentation and records, and unleashing new possibilities for commerce."

The RBA has previously stated that an Australian dollar CBDC could potentially allow for innovative financial practices and complex payment systems that cannot be replaced by fiat money.

The central bank did add that "more research" is needed to fully assess the advantages.

Sources:

https://cointelegraph.com/news/mastercard-announces-successful-wrapped-cbdc-blockchain-trial-results

https://www.mastercard.com/news/ap/en/newsroom/press-releases/en/2023/mastercard-demonstrates-interoperable-cbdc-for-trusted-web3-commerce-in-australia-and-beyond/