Tokens: Forty Percent of Transactions Without a Card NumberNarrow moat

Mastercard (MA) — moat facet

About 40% of Mastercard transactions no longer carry a real card number, which puts the network rather than the wallet in charge of the credential.

A card number printed on plastic is a weak credential: anyone who copies it can use it. A token replaces it with a substitute that works only in one device or one merchant, and the network that issues the token sits in the middle of every transaction that uses it. Mastercard says that in 2025, approximately 40% of all Mastercard transactions were tokenized1.

Tokens and agents~40%transactionstokenized, 2025~130crypto co-brandcard programs+23%value-addedservicesgrowth, 20252025Agent Paylaunched in the USMastercard Form 10-K FY2025
The credential now lives inside the network.

That shift strengthens the network in two ways. It cuts fraud, which makes merchants and issuers more willing to push more payments to cards. And it makes Mastercard, rather than the issuer or the wallet, the keeper of the credential. Its digital enablement services let issuers, acquirers, merchants and digital wallets provision and use tokenized payment credentials2.

The same machinery is being extended to software agents. Mastercard launched Agent Pay in 2025, a framework for AI-assisted and fully automated payments that builds on its existing tokenization capabilities, including Agentic Tokens, and enabled all United States cardholders to participate3. If agents do the buying, the token is how the card follows them.

Tokenization also feeds the services business. Security solutions are the first category the filing lists among the drivers of value-added services growth4, which rose 23% in 20255.

Tokens also change the economics of fraud for everyone in the chain. A merchant that stores a token rather than a card number has less to steal, and an issuer approves more transactions when it trusts the credential; the filing lists increasing tokenization and driving increased approval rates among the aims of its consumer payments strategy6. Higher approval rates mean more transactions switched and more assessments earned. The security work, in other words, pays twice: once as a service sold to banks, and again as volume on the network.

The share of transactions that are tokenized is the number worth following each year. A figure that stalls near 40% would say wallets and merchants are keeping their own credentials, and the network's hold on the transaction is no longer rising.

Moat trajectory: Widening

Tokenization reached about 40% of transactions and now underpins Agent Pay.

The number that tests this moat
Reported
Share of transactions tokenized
About 40% (2025)

The network's hold on the credential; a share that stalls would mean wallets and merchants keep their own.

Source: Mastercard Form 10-K, FY2025 ↗
⚠ Threats to the moat
⚠ THREAT 01
Wallets That Sit Between Card and Merchant
The wallet on the phone owns the customer's attention, and every card network has to pay attention to what the wallet wants.
References
  1. ReportedMastercard says that in 2025, approximately 40% of all Mastercard transactions were tokenized.
    Mastercard Form 10-K for fiscal 2025 - Item 1 business: the network, competition, tokenization, account-based payments and human capital. — FY2025 · publ. 11 February 2026 · source ↗
  2. ReportedIts digital enablement services let issuers, acquirers, merchants and digital wallets provision and use tokenized payment credentials.
    Mastercard Form 10-K for fiscal 2025 - Item 1 business: the network, competition, tokenization, account-based payments and human capital. — FY2025 · publ. 11 February 2026 · source ↗
  3. ReportedMastercard launched Agent Pay in 2025, a framework for AI-assisted and fully automated payments that builds on its existing tokenization capabilities, including Agentic Tokens, and enabled all United States cardholders to participate.
    Mastercard Form 10-K for fiscal 2025 - Item 1 business: the network, competition, tokenization, account-based payments and human capital. — FY2025 · publ. 11 February 2026 · source ↗
  4. ReportedSecurity solutions are the first category the filing lists among the drivers of value-added services growth, which rose 23% in 2025.
    Mastercard Form 10-K for fiscal 2025 - Item 7 MD&A: value-added services and solutions. — FY2025 · publ. 11 February 2026 · source ↗
  5. ReportedSecurity solutions are the first category the filing lists among the drivers of value-added services growth, which rose 23% in 2025.
    Mastercard Form 10-K for fiscal 2025 - Item 7 MD&A: value-added services and solutions. — FY2025 · publ. 11 February 2026 · source ↗
  6. ReportedA merchant that stores a token rather than a card number has less to steal, and an issuer approves more transactions when it trusts the credential; the filing lists increasing tokenization and driving increased approval rates among the aims of its consumer payments strategy.
    Mastercard Form 10-K for fiscal 2025 - Item 1 business: the network, competition, tokenization, account-based payments and human capital. — FY2025 · publ. 11 February 2026 · source ↗
Sources
Generated September 25, 2026