Compiled by: Felix, PANews
In a more favorable political and regulatory environment, the development of the stablecoin sector has flourished over the past year, with the market size exceeding $300 billion. Payment giants, banks, and fintech companies in the traditional financial sector are accelerating their involvement in stablecoins, particularly payment companies, which are gradually integrating stablecoins into their systems. Additionally, following payment company Stripe's acquisition of stablecoin startup Bridge for $1.1 billion, a series of other venture capital and acquisition negotiations have followed.
On October 30, sources revealed that payment giant Mastercard has entered the later stages of negotiations to acquire stablecoin infrastructure startup Zerohash, with the acquisition price estimated between $1.5 billion and $2 billion.
Mastercard has long been active in the cryptocurrency space, including its acquisition of blockchain analytics company CipherTrace in 2021. However, Mastercard later shut down many of CipherTrace's key products. Nevertheless, Mastercard has consistently recognized the potential of stablecoins and has recently increased its investment in them, including joining the Global Dollar Network, an alliance focused on this technology, which also includes members like Robinhood and Kraken.
If this acquisition deal is finalized, it would mark Mastercard's largest investment in the cryptocurrency and stablecoin space, highlighting the deep embrace of blockchain technology by traditional payment institutions. However, sources indicate that there is still a possibility of the deal falling through.
Founded in 2017 and headquartered in Chicago, Zerohash is dedicated to developing infrastructure for stablecoins and blockchain, enabling companies like Mastercard and other financial firms to offer services such as cryptocurrency trading, custody, and staking.
In September, Zerohash partnered with Morgan Stanley, which will provide cryptocurrency trading services on its trading platform E-Trade through Zerohash starting in the first half of 2026. Additionally, Zerohash completed a $104 million funding round in September, achieving a valuation of $1 billion. This round was led by Interactive Brokers (IBKR.O), with participation from financial institutions like Morgan Stanley and SoFi, and strategic investors including Zerohash's clients, with funds from Apollo also participating.
Notably, according to Fortune, prior to Mastercard's potential acquisition of Zerohash, Mastercard and Coinbase had engaged in late-stage negotiations to acquire stablecoin startup BVNK for approximately $2 billion. Three insiders revealed that Coinbase appears to have won this bidding war and has signed an exclusive agreement with BVNK.
As fellow players in the stablecoin infrastructure space, Bridge and BVNK are more focused on stablecoins compared to Zerohash, allowing companies to use cryptocurrencies like USDC and Tether for global payroll and fund management applications. In contrast, Zerohash offers a broader range of products, including helping companies build their own cryptocurrency trading platforms and providing APIs for tokenization, or wrapping traditional financial assets into the blockchain.
Amid the trend of traditional payments transitioning to digital assets, Mastercard's acquisition of stablecoin infrastructure startup Zerohash may signal a "full shift of the payment war to blockchain," with stablecoins potentially becoming a new pillar of global payments. However, the infrastructure supporting this future remains immature, and large companies like Mastercard and Stripe may continue to seek startups that can help them build new products.
Related reading: McKinsey 2025 Global Payments Report: Thoughts on Development Under Multiple Payment Tracks
免责声明：本文章仅代表作者个人观点，不代表本平台的立场和观点。本文章仅供信息分享，不构成对任何人的任何投资建议。用户与作者之间的任何争议，与本平台无关。如网页中刊载的文章或图片涉及侵权，请提供相关的权利证明和身份证明发送邮件到support@aicoin.com，本平台相关工作人员将会进行核查。
