Stablecoins might not send your digital wallet to the moon, but the less speculative side of cryptocurrency is definitely enjoying its moment in the sun.
According to a new report from Fortune, credit card stalwart Mastercard wants to make a massive bet on infrastructure that links digital currencies to the normal financial world.
Mastercard is in advanced talks to buy the stablecoin startup Zerohash for between $1.5 and $2 billion, Fortune reports. Zerohash, founded in 2017, provides banking companies a toolkit for providing their own cryptocurrency and stablecoin products. If the deal goes through, it would represent a major investment in cryptocurrency infrastructure from a traditional banking company. When reached by Fast Company, Mastercard and Zerohash declined to comment.
The report comes weeks after Mastercard was reportedly competing to buy BVNK, a startup that helps businesses integrate transactions using stablecoins, which are digital currencies pegged to the value of traditional currencies. According to the same report by Fortune, Coinbase made it further in those acquisition talks, hence Mastercard turning to Zerohash for a parallel deal. BVNK didn’t immediately respond to Fast Company’s request for comment.
Crypto’s unsexy side
Stablecoins serve as a bridge between the volatile world of cryptocurrencies, where massive price swings are the norm, and stable national currencies like the U.S. dollar. Because they aren’t really used for speculation or investment, stablecoins provide many of the perks promised by the crypto revolution like instant transactions and a digital ledger without the downside of assets that tend to spike and plunge.
The less flashy side of crypto has come into the spotlight lately. Circle’s flashy IPO in June saw the stablecoin company’s share price almost triple overnight. Earlier this year, fintech giant Stripe bought the crypto payments platform Bridge, paying $1.1 billion to build out its own stablecoin infrastructure. Chase also recently announced its own stablecoin play, connecting its credit card rewards program with the stablecoin USDC through Coinbase.
Mastercard has signaled its interest in crypto, and specifically stablecoins, previously. Over the summer, it joined the Global Dollar Network, a consortium of companies boosting stablecoin adoption, alongside Robinhood and other companies from the crypto side of things. In 2021, Mastercard acquired the crypto analytics company CipherTrace, though it later shuttered most of the products it obtained through the deal.
Traditional financial giants aren’t the only ones getting in on the stablecoin frenzy. Walmart and Amazon are both exploring the possibility of issuing or otherwise leaning on stablecoins, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. Enabling payments through stable cryptocurrencies could allow retail giants to duck the billions they pay in transaction fees – an existential threat to banks and credit card companies that make a sliver of every sale.
Era of deregulation
The explosion of stablecoin deals and soaring crypto values aren’t happening in a vacuum. Trump’s second term has ushered in an era of dramatic deregulation in the U.S., and buzzy crypto startups and normie finance giants alike are racing to cash in.
The president himself is pouring gasoline on the crypto wildfire, as his media company bets big on Bitcoin and his policies boost the Trump family’s latest crypto venture – strokes of self dealing that would have been a historic scandal in any other presidency.
If 2025’s spate of deals connecting the traditional finance world and stablecoin startups pans out, the least sexy side of cryptocurrency might have the most staying power – and an actual everyday use case beyond sending your bank account to the moon.