Mastercard announced the acquisition of stablecoin infrastructure company BVNK, which was previously in talks with Coinbase for a $2 billion deal.
Mastercard to acquire BVNK for up to $1.8 billion
As announced in a press release, Mastercard has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire BVNK for up to $1.8 billion, including $300 million in contingent payments.
BVNK is an enterprise stablecoin infrastructure solutions provider operating in over 130 countries. Last year, the company was in discussions with cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase about a merger, but in November the deal fell through.
It now appears that Mastercard has managed to secure the signature of infrastructure company Stablecoins. “The agreement further expands Mastercard’s end-to-end support for digital assets and value movements across currencies, rails and regions,” the press release said.
In January, another major payment card provider, Visa, also formed a partnership with BVNK, seeking its expertise to enable stable payments on the Visa Direct platform.
Mastercard also plans to integrate its fiat rails with on-chain payments in this acquisition. Jorn Lambert, Chief Product Officer of Mastercard, said:
This acquisition reinforces what we have always done, using innovation and technology to drive economies and empower people. Adding on-chain rails to our network will support speed and programmability for virtually any type of transaction.
Stablecoins, which are cryptocurrencies linked to fiat currencies, have gained worldwide adoption in recent years, thanks to positive regulation like the United States’ GENIUS Act. “We anticipate that most financial institutions and fintechs will eventually provide digital currency services, whether with stablecoins or tokenized deposits,” Lambert noted.
Mastercard’s transaction with BVNK is expected to close before the end of the year, but according to the release, it is subject to regulatory review and other customary closing conditions.
Jesse Hemson-Struthers, co-founder and CEO of BVNK, said:
This agreement brings together complementary capabilities to define and realize the future of money. Together, we are able to provide an unprecedented infrastructure for digital currency-based financial services.
In 2024 and most of 2025, the stablecoin sector saw a notable upward trend as the combined market capitalization of these tokens exploded. However, since October, the slowdown in the broader cryptocurrency market has also affected fiat-anchored coins, as data from DefiLlama shows.
The value of the metric seems to have been moving sideways over the last few months | Source: DefiLlama
The chart shows that the stablecoin market capitalization has seen its growth stagnate in recent months. However, unlike the rest of the sector, these assets have not suffered a decline, at least not yet. As such, stablecoins have still held up relatively well in the broader context.
Bitcoin Price
At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading around $74,700, up almost 7% over the past week.
Looks like the price of the coin has shot up in the last couple of days | Source: BTCUSDT on TradingView
Featured image of Dall-E, chart from TradingView.com
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