BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 6. Mastercard today
announced a definitive agreement to acquire BVNK, a leader in
stablecoin infrastructure, for up to $1.8 billion, including $300
million in contingent payments, Trend reports via the company.
The deal further expands Mastercard’s end-to-end support of
digital assets and value movement across currencies, rails and
regions.
Technology continuously evolves how value is exchanged between
people and businesses. Digital assets powered by blockchain
technology have the potential to make money movement faster and
smarter. While nascent today, digital currency payment use cases
are rapidly scaling, reaching at least $350 billion1 in volume in
2025.
With increased regulatory clarity on digital currencies in
multiple geographies, financial institutions and fintechs are
looking to offer their customers payment choices enabled by
stablecoins and tokenized deposits.
Today, card payments offer unparalleled user experience, reach,
acceptance and consumer protections for billions of consumers at
hundreds of millions of acceptance locations and digital access
points. Crypto wallets all over the world have embraced cards as
the credential of choice to bring utility to digital currencies in
consumer payments. Incremental opportunities for stablecoins and
tokenized deposits lie in use cases like cross-border remittances,
payouts, P2P and B2B payments. Over time, speed and programmability
may also solve critical pain points in capital markets, treasury
management and other commercial areas.
The key to support these use cases is to connect these rails
seamlessly to existing fiat rails, applying the security,
reliability and compliance standards that are the bedrock of
payments. Mastercard is investing to ensure these payment options
can be plugged into its network to ensure accessibility,
interoperability and trust.
As different digital currencies and tokenized deposits are
issued and their use cases scale, so too does the need for highly
secure and compliant payment orchestration between fiat and digital
currencies across multiple chains. Bringing the capabilities of
BVNK and Mastercard together will deliver trusted interoperability
at scale that can seamlessly connect across systems.
“We expect that most financial institutions and fintechs
will in time provide digital currency services, be it with
stablecoins or tokenized deposits. We want to support them and
their customers with a best in class, highly compliant,
interoperable offering that brings the benefits of tokenized money
to the real world,” said Jorn Lambert, Chief Product Officer,
Mastercard. “This acquisition reinforces what we have always
done, using innovation and technology to power economies and
empower people. Adding on-chain rails to our network will support
speed and programmability for virtually every type of
transaction.”
The acquisition adds to the company’s recent commitments, such
as the Mastercard Crypto Partner Program, to foster more
collaboration and innovation to maximize the opportunity in the
next phase of on-chain payments for all involved.
Since its founding in 2021, BVNK has built deep expertise and
industry-leading infrastructure to bridge fiat and stablecoins.
Today, the BVNK platform enables sending and receiving payments for
its customers on all major blockchain networks across 130+
countries.
“For all of the advancements made in simplifying the digital
currency opportunity, we have only scratched the surface of what’s
possible,” said Jesse Hemson-Struthers, Co-Founder and CEO,
BVNK. “This deal brings together complementary capabilities to
define and deliver the future of money. Together, we’re able to
deliver an unprecedented infrastructure for digital currency-based
financial services.”
The combined activities of Mastercard and BVNK would deliver a
digital asset- and chain-agnostic approach, allowing customers to
access the solutions best suited to their needs, without being
locked into closed ecosystems.
The transaction, which is anticipated to close before the end of
the year, is subject to regulatory review and other customary
closing conditions.
Investment Community Call
On March 17, at 9:00 a.m. ET, the company hosted a conference
call to discuss the transaction. The dial-in information for this
call was 888-330-2508 (within the U.S.) and 240-789-2735 (outside
the U.S.) and the passcode is 6451878. A replay of the call will be
available for one month and can be accessed by dialing 800-770-2030
(within the U.S.) and 647-362-9199 (outside the U.S.), using
passcode 6451878.
The live call and the replay can also be accessed through the
Investor Relations section of the company’s website at
www.mastercard.com/investor. Presentation slides used on this call
are also available on the website.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements pursuant
to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation
Reform Act of 1995. All statements other than statements of
historical facts may be forward-looking statements. When used in
this press release, the words “believe,” “expect,” “could,” “may,”
“would,” “will,” “trend” and similar words are intended to identify
forward-looking statements. Examples of forward-looking statements
include, but are not limited to, statements that relate to
Mastercard’s future prospects, developments and business
strategies, as well as Mastercard’s acquisition and operation of
BVNK’s business. We caution you to not place undue reliance on
these forward-looking statements, as they speak only as of the date
they are made. Except for the company’s ongoing obligations under
the U.S. federal securities laws, the company does not intend to
update or otherwise revise the forward-looking information to
reflect actual results of operations, changes in financial
condition, changes in estimates, expectations or assumptions,
changes in general economic or industry conditions or other
circumstances arising and/or existing since the preparation of this
press release or to reflect the occurrence of any unanticipated
events.
Many factors and uncertainties relating to the transaction, our
operations and our business environment, all of which are difficult
to predict and many of which are outside of our control, influence
whether any forward-looking statements can or will be achieved. Any
one of these factors could cause our actual results or the impact
of the acquisition to differ materially from those expressed or
implied in writing in any forward-looking statements made by
Mastercard or on its behalf. Such factors related to the completion
and impact of the acquisition include, but are not limited to,
whether all necessary conditions will be met, and whether the
transaction will close on agreed terms and in a timely manner.
1 Boston Consulting Group – Stablecoin Payments: The Truth
Behind the Numbers (link)
