Mastercard to acquire crypto startup BVNK for up to $1.8 billion in largest stablecoin deal to date

Mastercard has finally pulled the trigger on a stablecoin acquisition. The payments giant on Tuesday morning announced a deal to acquire the London-based startup BVNK for up to $1.8 billion, with $300 million locked up in “contingent payments.” The deal is expected to close by year end, Jorn Lambert, Mastercard’s chief product officer, told Fortune. He declined to provide more details about the purchase of BVNK, which uses stablecoins to power customer transactions, cross-border payments, global treasuries, and other use cases.

The acquisition concludes an off-and-on negotiations process that saw the stablecoin firm court multiple buyers, including the U.S. crypto exchange Coinbase and Mastercard. Coinbase came close to buying the startup for around $2 billion before the two called off the deal around November. 

Mastercard’s yet-to-be-closed purchase of BVNK eclipses Stripe’s $1.1 billion deal for the startup Bridge in February 2025, making this the largest stablecoin acquisition yet for the crypto industry.

Mastercard’s stock jumped about 2.5% in pre-market trading. 

“This is really about getting the right tools to move after new addressable markets,” said Lambert.

Stablecoin rails

Mastercard’s push into stablecoins comes as the payments giant has fended off speculation over the past year that the rise of the digital tokens, or cryptocurrencies pegged to real-world assets like the U.S. dollar, may eat into its margins. 

Proponents of stablecoins say their use of blockchain-based payment rails reduces fees and allows users to transact more quickly. Investors have seen some validity to that argument. Mastercard saw its shares initially sag after the U.S. Senate passed in June the Genius Act, legislation that regulates stablecoins. President Donald Trump signed the bill into law one month later. 

Mastercard, however, has pushed back on any implications that stablecoins are a threat to its business. “I think most flows will begin and end in fiat,” Raj Seshadri, chief commercial payments officer at Mastercard, said on a July call with analysts.

Still, the incumbent payments network has made moves to keep pace with technological change. In addition to initially courting BVNK, Mastercard was also in talks with the crypto startup Zerohash for a purchase price of between $1.5 billion to $2 billion. That deal reportedly fell through. Lambert, Mastercard’s chief product officer, declined to delve into the payments network’s past ambitions of stablecoin acquisitions.

He also pushed back on the argument that stablecoins threatened Mastercard’s business model. “If you think about our current business, the card business, there’s no problem to be solved,” he said, adding that incorporating stablecoin rails positions Mastercard to more effectively make headway in the remittances market, among other areas.

For BVNK, founded in 2021, the $1.8 billion acquisition price is a large premium over its $750 million valuation in its Series B fundraising round in December 2024. “Needless to say, there’s a big smile on my face,” said BVNK cofounder Chris Harmse, in reference to Mastercard closing the deal to buy his company. 

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com