As the boundaries between traditional finance and blockchain continue to blur, Mastercard is reportedly in talks to acquire Zerohash, a startup providing crypto infrastructure, particularly for 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 splash by acquiring crypto startup Zerohash. According to five anonymous sources close to the matter, negotiations are reportedly focused on a deal worth between $1.5 billion and $2 billion. More specifically, Zerohash provides various infrastructures for stablecoins, on-ramps and off-ramps, cross-border payments, tokenization, and staking.
In September, the company had already made a name for itself through a partnership with Morgan Stanley to provide technology for the bank’s E*Trade platform, enabling trading in BTC, ETH, and SOL.
Earlier this month, we reported on ongoing discussions about the stablecoin startup BVNK. Coinbase and Mastercard were both in the running for a potential acquisition, and according to Fortune Crypto, Coinbase won the negotiations. This could explain Mastercard’s shift to Zerohash, although the transaction may not go through.
Earlier this year, 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). Zerohash is involved in the conversion and storage of assets for this project.
Yesterday, we reported on an initiative by competitor Visa, whose new product highlights payments using four stablecoins.
