Mastercard to Acquire Stablecoin Firm BVNK for Up to $1.8B

The credit card company Mastercard has agreed to acquire BVNK, a United Kingdom stablecoin firm, for up to $1.8 billion. The merger will help Mastercard blur the boundaries between the stablecoin market and traditional card payment services.

Mastercard to Acquire BVNK

Using BVNK’s infrastructure, Mastercard aims to explore use cases such as cross-border remittances, payouts, peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions, and business-to-business (B2B) payments.

The announcement stated that Mastercard will connect these use cases to existing payment options while incorporating “security, reliability, and compliance standards” common to traditional payment solutions.

Since its inception in 2021, BVNK has provided stablecoin services to institutional clients across over 130 countries. These clients include Worldpay, Deel, Ferrari, and Flywire.

Recall that Mastercard’s interest in acquiring BVNK trails back to last year. At the time, the American crypto exchange Coinbase won a bidding war against Mastercard to acquire BVNK. Coinbase agreed to acquire the stablecoin firm for up to $2 billion. However, in November, the crypto exchange thwarted its acquisition deal with BVNK. This has now given way for Mastercard to step in.

The acquisition deal is expected to conclude before the end of this year. However, it remains subject to regulatory scrutiny and other necessary checks.

A Shift Towards On-chain Payments Services

Mastercard’s latest acquisition plan is a testament to its continued efforts to expand its presence in the crypto ecosystem. Last week, the firm revealed its Crypto Partner Program, an initiative involving partnerships with over 85 crypto firms to facilitate blockchain payments.

The payments platform believes these moves position it at the forefront of on-chain payment adoption. Mastercard’s chief product officer, Jorn Lambert, spoke more on this.

“We expect that most financial institutions and fintechs will in time provide digital currency services, be it with stablecoins or tokenized deposits. We want to support them and their customers with a best in class, highly compliant, interoperable offering that brings the benefits of tokenized money to the real world,” he said.

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