Mastercard Abandons Investment in Zerohash, Shifts Focus to BVNK for Stablecoin Payment Infrastructure

BlockBeats News, May 20th, Mastercard has abandoned its investment plan in the crypto infrastructure company Zerohash, after previously agreeing to acquire the UK stablecoin infrastructure company BVNK for $18 billion in March.

In January of this year, Mastercard was considering a strategic investment in Zerohash, based in Chicago. At that time, Zerohash was seeking to raise $2.5 billion at a $15 billion valuation, and the company is currently advancing a new funding round at a higher valuation.

Founded in 2017, Zerohash mainly provides APIs and developer tools for crypto, stablecoin, and tokenization products. Meanwhile, recent transactions involving Payward, the parent company of Kraken, and Bullish have shown that consolidation in the digital asset infrastructure sector is still ongoing.

In terms of stablecoin payment layout, Mastercard has acquired BVNK for $18 billion and may pay an additional $3 billion in performance-based consideration. BVNK currently serves platforms such as Worldpay and Deel for cross-border payments, fund settlement, and financial management.

Mastercard plans to integrate BVNK's technology into its Mastercard Move network to support 24/7 stablecoin settlement between payment institutions and merchant acquirers, and explore adding stablecoin settlement capabilities to its payment gateway.

Analysts believe that this transaction will further intensify the competition between Mastercard and Visa in the "payment networkization" strategy and drive the accelerated evolution of the traditional cross-border clearing system towards a stablecoin settlement model.