Mastercard Closes $1.8 Billion Acquisition of Stablecoin Firm BVNK

Mastercard confirmed on August 3 that it has completed its acquisition of stablecoin infrastructure provider BVNK, closing a deal valued at up to $1.8 billion — including $300 million in contingent payments — that the card network first agreed to in March, American Banker and Cointelegraph reported.

Connecting Fiat and Blockchain Rails

BVNK, founded in 2021 and based in London and San Francisco, provides APIs that let businesses and financial institutions hold, move, and convert money across traditional banking systems and blockchain networks, supporting payments in more than 130 countries. Its clients include PayPal and Circle. "Digital currencies — particularly stablecoins — are increasingly addressing real-world needs in areas like cross-border B2B payments, remittances, payouts, settlement and treasury flows," said Jorn Lambert, Mastercard's chief product officer.

Stablecoins Go Mainstream

The deal positions Mastercard for a payments landscape in which stablecoins are expected to play a growing role: stablecoins totaled $135 billion of the $44 trillion in cross-border payments in 2025, or 0.31%, according to FCX Intelligence — a tiny share with a large addressable market. Forty-seven percent of banks said their clients were asking for general information about cryptocurrency, American Banker research found.

Backing Open USD

Mastercard is also part of Open Standard, a consortium of more than 140 businesses — including BNY, Huntington Bank, Citizens Bank, U.S. Bank, American Express, Visa, Stripe, and Coinbase — that plans to issue the dollar-pegged Open USD stablecoin later this year. With Mastercard and Visa both building stablecoin settlement systems, the card networks' decades-long rivalry is now playing out on blockchain rails.