Headline: Mastercard to acquire stablecoin infrastructure firm BVNK for up to $1.8B as it moves to connect fiat rails with on‑chain payments
Mastercard has struck a definitive agreement to buy enterprise stablecoins infrastructure provider BVNK for up to $1.8 billion, including $300 million in contingent consideration, the company said in a press release. BVNK, which serves clients in more than 130 countries, had been in merger talks with Coinbase last year over a roughly $2 billion deal that collapsed in November.
The acquisition is positioned as a strategic step to broaden Mastercard’s digital‑assets capabilities. The card giant said the deal “further expands Mastercard’s end‑to‑end support of digital assets and value movement across currencies, rails and regions,” and it plans to weave on‑chain rails into its existing fiat network to boost speed and programmability for transactions. “This acquisition reinforces what we have always done, using innovation and technology to power economies and empower people,” Mastercard Chief Product Officer Jorn Lambert said.
BVNK has already been drawing interest from other payments firms: in January, Visa announced a collaboration with BVNK to enable stablecoin payments on its Visa Direct platform. BVNK co‑founder and CEO Jesse Hemson‑Struthers said the Mastercard deal “brings together complementary capabilities to define and deliver the future of money,” and called the combination a step toward delivering “unprecedented infrastructure for digital currency‑based financial services.”
Mastercard’s purchase remains subject to regulatory approval and customary closing conditions, and the company said it expects the transaction to close before the end of the year.
Market context
Stablecoins—cryptocurrencies pegged to fiat—saw strong adoption through 2024 and much of 2025, helped by clearer regulatory moves such as the U.S. GENIUS Act and growing institutional interest. Lambert predicted that most banks and fintechs will eventually offer digital currency services, whether via stablecoins or tokenized deposits.
However, growth in the stablecoin market has stalled since October, according to DefiLlama data: market capitalization surged earlier but has flattened in recent months. Unlike much of the broader crypto market, stablecoins have not experienced a significant drawdown and have generally held steady.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin was trading around $74,700, up nearly 7% over the past week.
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