As the lines between traditional finance and blockchain continue to blur, Mastercard is reportedly in talks to acquire Zerohash, a startup that provides crypto infrastructure, with a particular focus on stablecoins.
Mastercard is reportedly in talks to acquire Zerohash
For several years now, Mastercard’s involvement in the crypto landscape has been well established.
According to Fortune Crypto, the global payments giant is poised to make another move by acquiring the crypto startup Zerohash. In fact, according to five anonymous sources familiar with the matter, negotiations are reportedly centered on a deal valued between $1.5 billion and $2 billion.
Specifically, Zerohash provides various infrastructure solutions for stablecoins, on-ramps and off-ramps, cross-border payments, tokenization, and staking.
In September, the company had already made headlines through a partnership with Morgan Stanley to provide technology for the bank’s E*Trade platform, enabling trading of BTC, ETH, and SOL.
Earlier this month, we reported on ongoing discussions regarding the stablecoin startup BVNK. In fact, both Coinbase and Mastercard were in the running for a potential acquisition, and according to Fortune Crypto, Coinbase reportedly won the negotiations.
This could explain Mastercard’s interest in Zerohash, although the deal may not go through.
Earlier this year, it’s worth noting that Zerohash was also involved in a Mastercard initiative, when the latter enabled its cardholders to make on-chain payments through a partnership with Chainlink (LINK). In this project, Zerohash is effectively involved in the conversion and custody of assets.
Yesterday, we looked back at the initiative by competitor Visa, whose new product highlights payments via four stablecoins.
