According to a recent report by Fortune, payments giant Mastercard is on track to acquire cryptocurrency infrastructure and settlement company Zerohash for a total of $2 billion.
The acquisition is not a done deal just yet, but the two are currently in final-stage negotiations.
Zerohash, which was co-founded by Edward Woodford (who serves as CEO) and Brian Liston, makes it possible for fintechs, banks, brokerages, and payment companies to integrate various cryptocurrency features, such as staking, custody, on/off ramping between crypto and fiat, non-fungible token (NFT) transfers, and so on.
The list of its partners includes such names as Interactive Brokers, DraftKings, Stripe, and so on.
In September, the company raised another $104 million during yet another funding round that brought its valuation to a total of $1 billion.
Mastercard's crypto moves
According to Fortune, the deal can be viewed as a bet on the stablecoin sector, given that Zerohash is also a stablecoin infrastructure provider that supports various regulated dollar-backed tokens of the likes of PYUSD.
In April, the payments behemoth allowed its consumers to spend stablecoins and merchants to receive them. The following month, Mastercard also announced a tie-up with MoonPay so that branded Mastercard cards can be linked to users’ stablecoin balances.
Following the passage of the GENIUS Act, which has introduced clarity for stablecoins in the US, the payments behemoth certainly feels more comfortable about the nascent sector.
Mastercard is also facing more competition from Visa, as well as some crypto-native players.
That said, the company recently clarified that it had no plans to launch its own blockchain.
Dan Burgin
Vladislav Sopov
U.Today Editorial Team