Mastercard has agreed to acquire stablecoin infrastructure provider BVNK in a deal valued at up to $1.8 billion, including as much as $300 million in contingent consideration, the payments company announced Tuesday. The move is intended to strengthen Mastercard’s ability to connect traditional fiat payment rails with blockchain-based transactions.
“We expect that most financial institutions and fintechs will in time provide digital currency services, be it with stablecoins or tokenized deposits,” said Jorn Lambert, Mastercard’s chief product officer.
Launched in 2021, BVNK supplies infrastructure that lets businesses send and receive payments across major blockchain networks in more than 130 countries. Its platform is designed to bridge fiat currencies and stablecoins to facilitate cross-border payments, payouts and commercial transactions.
BVNK was previously the subject of a proposed $2 billion acquisition by Coinbase that both parties abandoned during due diligence in November 2025; neither side gave a reason for canceling that agreement.
The company has attracted strategic backing from established payments and banking investors. In May 2025, Visa made a strategic investment through Visa Ventures following BVNK’s $50 million Series B round led by Haun Ventures. Citi Ventures also invested in October 2025, with BVNK saying at the time its valuation had surpassed $750 million; Citi did not disclose the investment amount.
Investor Stanley Druckenmiller has suggested that stablecoins and blockchain technology could reshape global payments over the next decade because of faster settlement, greater efficiency and lower costs compared with traditional systems, while remaining skeptical about cryptocurrencies as stores of value. That perspective aligns with growing interest among legacy financial firms and recent U.S. regulatory developments, including proposals such as the GENIUS Act, which have encouraged experimentation with stablecoin-based payment systems.