Mastercard will acquire the encryption startup Zerohash for 2 billion dollars, aiming to seize the stablecoin payment battlefield.

According to Fortune, payment giant Mastercard is in acquisition talks with stablecoin infrastructure Zerohash, with a deal amount reaching between 1.5 to 2 billion USD, potentially becoming the company's largest encryption acquisition to date, symbolizing its significant entry into the stablecoin payment competition, directly confronting both new and old forces such as Coinbase, Stripe, and Visa.

The stablecoin frenzy heats up: Mastercard invests heavily in blockchain payment

In the past year, with the recovery of the encryption market and the passage of the US stablecoin regulatory bill, global payment companies have rushed to enter the related fields. Stripe acquired Bridge for $1.1 billion, PayPal expanded its personalized transfer tool PayPal Links, and Visa also announced that it would add support for four blockchain payments.

(Visa expands support for four blockchains and stablecoins, last quarter the amount of cryptocurrency spending surged four times )

Today, Mastercard will join the fray with a Zerohash acquisition plan of up to $2 billion, demonstrating that stablecoin infrastructure is becoming the new core of the global payment network.

Zerohash: The Engine Behind Tokenization for Financial Institutions

Zerohash was founded in 2017 and is an infrastructure provider focused on payment and encryption trading APIs. Its technology allows banks, fintech companies, and brokerages to directly embed stablecoin and tokenization features within existing platforms.

The company claims to have processed over $2 billion in tokenized capital flows in the past four months and provided payment infrastructure for major tokenized funds such as BlackRock (BUIDL), Franklin Templeton (BENJI), and Hamilton Lane (HLPIF).

Zerohash completed a $104 million financing in September of last year, achieving a valuation of $1 billion, with investors including Interactive Brokers, Apollo, Point72 Ventures, and Nyca Partners.

Before there was BVNK, and after there is Zerohash: Mastercard's stablecoin layout

Insiders revealed that Mastercard had engaged in acquisition negotiations with London-based stablecoin startup BVNK, but it seems that Coinbase ultimately won the bidding. Both parties have now signed an exclusive agreement, which means that BVNK cannot accept offers from other bidders.

(Coinbase and Mastercard plan to acquire stablecoin startup BVNK at a valuation of $2.5 billion)

After the unsuccessful acquisition of BVNK, Mastercard turned its attention to Zerohash, attempting to fill the gap in its on-chain settlement and asset tokenization through its comprehensive API architecture and tokenization technology.

Previously, Mastercard also joined the stablecoin alliance formed by companies such as Robinhood and Kraken, deepening its penetration in the payment and capital flow layer.

Blockchain and stablecoins are reshaping the payment industry, who will take the lead?

Even though the low transaction fees of stablecoins may weaken Mastercard's traditional revenue from fees, the company clearly chooses to embrace rather than resist, by acquiring infrastructure to control the future direction of payments.

The intensive acquisitions by companies such as Mastercard, Stripe, Visa, PayPal, and Coinbase today reflect that payment providers are entering a new round of structural transformation. If Mastercard successfully acquires Zerohash, it will secure a key position in this on-chain payment war, creating an important strategy that covers everything from stablecoin issuance to tokenization and payment.

This article states that Mastercard will acquire the encryption startup Zerohash for $2 billion, aiming to seize the stablecoin payment battlefield. It first appeared in Chain News ABMedia.