Mastercard has reportedly moved from seeking to acquire blockchain infrastructure company Zerohash to considering an investment in the company.
The company changed its plans after Zerohash chose to remain independent and acquisition negotiations fell through, CoinDesk reported Tuesday (January 20), citing unnamed sources.
The two companies are currently discussing an investment, according to the report.
Mastercard did not comment on the CoinDesk article and did not immediately respond to PYMNTS’ request for comment.
Zerohash told CoinDesk that it is best positioned to innovate, build and deliver to customers by remaining independent.
“We are not considering an acquisition by Mastercard,” the company said, according to the report. “We respect the Mastercard team and look forward to developing business partnerships.”
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It was reported in October that the companies were in late-stage talks over a deal that would see Mastercard acquire Zerohash for $1.5 billion to $2 billion.
Contacted at the time by PYMNTS, both companies declined to comment for this report.
Zerohash announced in September that it had raised $104 million in a Series D-2 funding round to accelerate its product expansion and hire new talent.
The company said in a press release that it is seeing an increase in demand for enterprise-grade on-chain infrastructure, sparked by a boom in consumer adoption and new regulatory clarity in key markets such as the United States and Europe.
“This increase, along with the caliber of our investors and customers, is a testament to the trust we have built,” Zerohash founder and CEO Edward Woodford said in the release. “This further highlights the scale and proven track record we have developed since our founding in 2017. Crypto, stablecoins and tokenization are not coming – it’s here – and Zerohash is the engine behind the scenes.”
In November, Zerohash received approval to offer regulated cryptoasset and stablecoin infrastructure services in the European Economic Area. This came in the form of Zerohash Europe obtaining authorization under the European Union Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) framework from the Netherlands Financial Markets Authority.
Meanwhile, Mastercard completed the $2.65 billion acquisition of threat intelligence company Recorded Future in December 2024 and introduced a threat intelligence solution that includes that company’s platform in October.
