Mastercard closed its $1.8 billion acquisition of stablecoin infrastructure firm BVNK this week, beating out a reportedly higher offer from Coinbase. Early BVNK investor Concentric told CoinDesk the deal came down to cultural fit rather than price, while Visa ultimately opted not to pursue the startup despite holding a board seat. The contest reflects a wider scramble among payments giants for a stablecoin market worth roughly $300 billion.
The deal closed earlier this week after Mastercard's $1.8 billion purchase of BVNK ran through a secretive, multi-suitor contest. Concentric, an early investor that backed BVNK in 2019 at a $4 million valuation, gave CoinDesk an inside account of how the acquisition came together.
Coinbase's bigger offer lost on chemistry
Coinbase was reported to have had the upper hand at one point, potentially offering as much as $2.5 billion for BVNK. But Concentric founding partner Kjartan Rist said the fit with Coinbase never clicked, even though the exchange likely put a bigger number on the table.
Rist said BVNK's founders had already found a meeting of minds with Mastercard before testing the waters with Coinbase. According to Concentric's Kjartan Rist: "Mastercard stood outside on the porch waiting for them when that didn't work out." He attributed the outcome partly to the difference between an exchange and a financial services company.
Visa steps back despite a board seat
Visa also pursued BVNK and held an observer position on the board as an existing investor, Rist said. In the end, though, Rist said Visa decided not to pursue an acquisition, choosing instead to partner with multiple stablecoin operators, including Stripe, rather than own one outright.
Payments giants race into a $300 billion market
The total stablecoin market has grown to about $300 billion, according to CoinGecko data cited in the report. That market cap has made stablecoins a focal point for large card networks and payments players. Competition intensified after Stripe acquired stablecoin infrastructure firm Bridge in late 2024 for $1.1 billion, which probably put pressure on Visa and Mastercard to court other stablecoin shops.
CoinDesk previously reported that Stripe, Visa, Mastercard and Coinbase were all backing a separate stablecoin platform that has since gone live, underscoring how central stablecoins have become to traditional finance despite a broader crypto bear market.
Treasury and payroll use cases keep BVNK busy
Rist pointed to treasury operations as a core use case: one payments company working with BVNK rolls its treasury every 24 hours using stablecoins. Companies with distributed workforces are also using dollar-nominated stablecoins so employees in high-inflation countries can hold dollars instead of local currency such as pesos or naira.
Having backed a winner in BVNK, Concentric is now hunting for its next stablecoin bet. Rist estimated that only about 10% of self-described stablecoin companies are full stack and institutionally verified, calling the rest little more than a front end and some APIs.
Source: CoinDesk
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