Inside stablecoin firm BVNK’s journey to a $1.8B acquisition by Mastercard
Mastercard has acquired stablecoin infrastructure firm BVNK for $1.8 billion, following a competitive bidding process that included interest from Coinbase and Visa. The deal highlights the intensifying race among major payment networks to integrate stablecoin technology to remain competitive against agile fintech rivals like Stripe.
Why it matters
This acquisition signals a major shift in the financial sector as traditional payment giants move from partnering with crypto firms to acquiring them to secure their infrastructure and market share.
It’s a process that takes place out of view, under iron-clad non-disclosure agreements, but venture capital firm Concentric — an early investor in BVNK — gave CoinDesk a rare peek behind the curtain, beginning with the startup’s rise and ending with the completion of the deal earlier this week.
The venture capital business is a numbers game. In the case of BVNK, Concentric’s bet paid off: the VC firm backed the stablecoin startup in 2019 at a valuation of just $4 million. Founding partner of Concentric, Kjartan Rist, recalled being introduced to BVNK in 2018.
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