If MasterCard does not do it now, then tomorrow others will do it for her and offer joint activities. This is already happening with other payment cards and it is inevitable and natural. Cryptocurrency cannot but go closer to normal currency, because users are the same. People want convenience, and this can be achieved by combining the capabilities of these currencies. This is a very timely solution.
Their interest in cryptocurrency is actually a welcomed development, and like you said, in industry where you have lots of competition, if they are not careful, they will find themselves missing out when other competitors are implementing it, and you could see why Facebook too is now running round to implement theirs too after seeing that their competitors are already attracting people to their side.
I hope that MasterCard still would not make the same mistake that Facebook is making, because they are not starting where they are supposed to start from, and from that big position, they will only end up creating enemies for themselves which is already playing out now before the Libra is even released, so MasterCard has to learn from that also and be careful.
When MasterCard create its own cryptocurrency, then maybe mastercard will receive a deposit in the form of bitcoin. This will make it easier for cryptocurrency users to shop at merchants because Mastercard has millions of merchants worldwide. I think this is a good development for the investment climate in the cryptocurrency market