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

On May 20, global payments leader Mastercard has scrapped its planned investment in Chicago-based crypto infrastructure company Zerohash—just two months after agreeing to acquire UK stablecoin infrastructure firm BVNK for $18 billion. Back in January, Mastercard held discussions for a strategic investment in Zerohash, which was then seeking to raise $2.5 billion at a $15 billion valuation. Founded in 2017, Zerohash builds application programming interfaces (APIs) and developer tools for crypto, stablecoin, and tokenization products; it is currently pursuing a new funding round at a higher valuation. The shift comes amid ongoing consolidation in the digital asset infrastructure sector, with recent deals involving Kraken parent Payward and Bullish signaling the trend’s continuation. Mastercard’s BVNK deal includes an $18 billion base purchase price, plus the potential for an additional $3 billion in performance-based payments. BVNK counts platforms like Worldpay and Deel as clients, providing cross-border payment processing, fund settlement, and financial management services for those partners. Mastercard plans to integrate BVNK’s technology into its Mastercard Move network, enabling 24/7 stablecoin settlement between payment institutions and merchant acquirers. The firm also aims to add stablecoin settlement functionality to its broader payment gateway. Analysts say the BVNK acquisition will intensify competition between Mastercard and rival Visa in their respective “payment networkization” strategies, while accelerating the evolution of the traditional cross-border clearing system toward a stablecoin settlement model.