Mastercard (MA) yesterday announced it intends to act as a "bridge" between Paxos, a crypto trading platform already used by PayPal, and banks. Mastercard and Paxos will handle regulatory compliance and security — two core reasons banks cite for avoiding the asset class. Amid the deepening skepticism about future prospects of cryptos, this news comes as nothing less than a clear sign of crypto renaissance.

Once again, Mastercard's program is said to handle regulatory compliance and security – two core reasons banks cite for avoiding the asset class. Jorn Lambert, Mastercard's chief digital officer, commented “There are a lot of consumers out there that are really interested in this, and intrigued by crypto, but would feel a lot more confident if those services were offered by their financial institutions".

Large investment banks like Goldman Sachs (GS), Morgan Stanley (MS) and JPMorgan (JPM) have dedicated crypto teams but have largely avoided offering it to consumers. Just last week, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon expressed skepticism, calling cryptocurrencies “decentralized Ponzis” at an Institute for International Finance’s event. If banks do embrace this Mastercard partnership model, it may mean more competition for Coinbase (COIN) and other crypto exchanges.

The credit card and payments company said its role is to keep banks on the right side of regulation by following crypto compliance rules, verifying transactions and providing anti-money-laundering and identity monitoring services. Mastercard will pilot the product in the first quarter of next year, then “crank the handle” to expand in more geographies. It’s not known at this point, however, which banks have decided to sign up so far.