Mastercard Nears $2 Billion Deal to Acquire Zerohash

Payments giant Mastercard is reportedly in the final stages of negotiations to acquire crypto company Zerohash, Fortune reports, citing five sources familiar with the potential ￰0￱ is an American startup that provides infrastructure for stablecoins and other digital ￰1￱ deal could reach about $2 billion, though completion is not yet guaranteed, according to the ￰2￱ Zerohash Does & Why It Matters Zerohash is a leading B2B crypto and stablecoin infrastructure ￰3￱ enables banks, brokerages, fintechs and payment firms to build crypto and digital-asset services without having to build the entire backend ￰4￱ capabilities of Zerohash include: API-first, modular infrastructure that supports trading, custody, deposits/withdrawals, tokenization, payments and on/off-ramps.

Wide regulatory footprint: In the U. S., Zerohash is a FinCEN-registered Money Service Business and regulated Money Transmitter across jurisdictions. European, Australian and other affiliates operate as Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASP) in their ￰5￱ for stablecoins and various blockchains: For example, Zerohash recently announced support for the DOT token and the Polkadot ecosystem for deposits and ￰6￱ growth and funding: The company recently raised around $100 million and is approaching a valuation near $1 billion, underscoring enterprise interest in crypto ￰7￱ short: Zerohash acts as the “behind-the-scenes” engine that allows traditional financial and fintech firms to integrate crypto and stablecoin capabilities rapidly and ￰8￱ Implications For Mastercard Zerohash’s infrastructure aligns well with Mastercard’s broader strategy to treat cryptocurrencies and stablecoins not purely as speculative assets but as payment ￰9￱ has publicly stated that it sees crypto primarily as a means to speed up payments and improve efficiency, rather than as a purely revolutionary ￰10￱ acquiring Zerohash, Mastercard would gain: Ready-built infrastructure to offer stablecoin rails, trading, custody and other digital-asset services through its existing ￰11￱ to enterprise clients already using Zerohash (banks, brokerages, payment providers) — which could accelerate Mastercard’s entry into crypto-enabled payments.

A stronger position in the race among traditional financial firms to integrate digital assets, giving it a competitive edge over ￰12￱ move also follows Mastercard’s earlier discussions to acquire another crypto startup, BVNK, which likewise focused on ￰13￱ talks reached an advanced stage, though they ultimately shifted to exclusivity with Coinbase.