• Mastercard is negotiating to purchase Zerohash for $1.5 billion to $2 billion, in keeping with folks conversant in the matter.
• The Chicago-based startup raised $104 million in September 2025 at a $1 billion valuation.
• The deal follows Stripe’s $1.1 billion acquisition of Bridge and Coinbase’s negotiations over BVNK.

Mastercard is in closing stage talks to accumulate cryptocurrency and stablecoin infrastructure startup Zerohash for $1.5 billion to $2 billion, in keeping with folks conversant in the negotiations.

The deal may nonetheless collapse earlier than completion, but when it goes by, it might be one in all Mastercard’s largest investments in stablecoin and blockchain infrastructure. Based in 2017, Chicago-based Zerohash builds know-how that permits stablecoin funds and cryptocurrency buying and selling capabilities for its shoppers.

Fee giants compete over crypto startups

The potential acquisition follows earlier discussions Mastercard had with stablecoin startup BVNK. Sources stated Mastercard and Coinbase have been in talks to accumulate BVNK for about $2 billion. Coinbase seems to have secured exclusivity with BVNK, which prevents the corporate from contemplating competing presents.

With the expansion of the cryptocurrency business over the previous yr, stablecoin corporations have turn into a extremely popular class. After cost processing firm Stripe acquired stablecoin startup Bridge for $1.1 billion, further enterprise rounds and acquisition talks continued throughout the sector.

Stripe’s acquisition of Bridge and Coinbase’s BVNK negotiations are main strikes in the direction of stablecoins as the way forward for funds infrastructure. Proponents argue that stablecoins have benefits over conventional programs comparable to wire transfers and SWIFT, with blockchain know-how permitting transactions to be settled extra rapidly and with decrease processing prices.

Zerohash presents a broader suite of merchandise

Bridge and BVNK primarily concentrate on stablecoins, permitting companies to make use of cryptocurrencies comparable to USDC and Tether for international payroll and monetary administration. Zerohash helps a variety of merchandise, together with serving to companies launch cryptocurrency buying and selling platforms and offering APIs for tokenization that wrap conventional monetary belongings in blockchain format.

Zerohash raised a $104 million funding spherical in September at a valuation of $1 billion. Buyers backing the corporate embody Interactive Brokers, Apollo, Point72 Ventures, and Nyca. Stablecoins may theoretically disrupt Mastercard’s enterprise mannequin, which depends on amassing trade charges on transactions, however the funds firm continues to discover cryptocurrency alternatives to remain forward of rising traits.

Mastercard acquired blockchain analytics firm CipherTrace in 2021, however has since discontinued a lot of CipherTrace’s main merchandise. In current months, Mastercard has expanded its stablecoin actions, together with becoming a member of a consortium with Robinhood and Kraken targeted on the know-how. The potential acquisition of Zerohash would lengthen this technique by including infrastructure capabilities for cryptocurrency buying and selling and tokenization past stablecoin cost processing.

Associated: https://currencyjournals.com/google-ap2-protocol-brings-stablecoin-payments-to-ai-agents/