Weeks Before Its Sale, BVNK Was Wiring Stablecoins Into Visa’s Network
Two months before Mastercard finished buying it, BVNK was busy building out its stablecoin plumbing inside a rival’s network. BVNK announced in a Jan. 14, 2026, confirms the company began powering stablecoin services for Visa Direct, Visa’s real-time money-movement network, letting select business customers pre-fund payouts in stablecoins instead of relying solely on fiat. The tie-up built on a strategic investment Visa Ventures had made in BVNK back in May 2025.
By Aug. 3, 2026, Mastercard had completed its acquisition of BVNK. The company that spent early 2026 deepening its ties to Visa’s payments infrastructure now belongs to Visa’s largest card-network rival.
Mastercard Closes Its Largest Stablecoin Bet
Mastercard’s announcement confirms the deal closed Aug. 3, 2026, following a definitive agreement the two companies signed on March 17, 2026. Total consideration runs up to $1.8 billion: $1.5 billion upfront plus $300 million in earnout payments tied to performance metrics. The March announcement had guided toward a year-end 2026 close; regulators cleared the transaction well ahead of that timeline.
In Mastercard’s Aug. 3 release, chief product officer Jorn Lambert framed the deal around connectivity rather than control of any single payment rail, saying the next phase of payments will come down to
“how effectively each rail, network or form of money connects” with the others – fiat, stablecoins and tokenized deposits alike.
Why Buy Instead of Build
Lambert was more direct on a conference call after the March announcement: building comparable stablecoin infrastructure internally “would require quite a bit of time,” while buying BVNK gave Mastercard a much faster route to market.
That calculation followed two paths to the same goal that hadn’t worked out. BVNK spent most of 2025 in advanced acquisition talks with Coinbase, reportedly worth up to $2 billion; those talks collapsed by November 2025, with Coinbase calling the decision mutual. Separately, Mastercard had also reportedly explored buying stablecoin infrastructure firm Zerohash, though those talks fell apart earlier in the process.
BVNK, notably, was never fully outside Mastercard’s orbit in the meantime. Mastercard’s own June 3 announcement expanding its stablecoin settlement network came while the BVNK deal was still pending, and by June 10, when Mastercard launched its machine-to-machine payments platform, Agent Pay for Machines, BVNK was already listed by name among more than 30 partners, alongside Coinbase, Stripe and Polygon, weeks before the acquisition formally closed.
BVNK, Mastercard and Visa: How the Timeline Connects
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| May 2022 | BVNK Series A: $40M raised at a $340M valuation, led by Tiger Global |
| Dec 2024 | BVNK Series B: $50M raised at a $750M valuation, led by Haun Ventures |
| May 2025 | Visa Ventures takes a strategic stake in BVNK |
| Oct 2025 | Citi Ventures takes a strategic stake in BVNK |
| Nov 2025 | BVNK-Coinbase acquisition talks collapse |
| Jan 14, 2026 | BVNK begins powering stablecoin payments for Visa Direct |
| Mar 17, 2026 | Mastercard and BVNK sign a definitive acquisition agreement |
| Jun 3, 2026 | Mastercard expands its stablecoin settlement network |
| Jun 10, 2026 | Mastercard launches Agent Pay for Machines; BVNK listed as a partner |
| Aug 3, 2026 | Mastercard completes its acquisition of BVNK |
A Valuation That Roughly Quintupled in Four Years
BVNK’s Series A, which closed in May 2022, reportedly raised $40 million at a $340 million valuation led by Tiger Global. By its Series B in December 2024, the company had, according to its disclosed funding history, raised $50 million at a $750 million valuation, led by Haun Ventures with Coinbase Ventures and Tiger Global participating.
Two strategic investors reportedly took stakes without buying the company outright in the year that followed: Visa Ventures in May 2025, then Citi Ventures in October 2025. Mastercard’s price (up to $1.8 billion) works out to roughly 2.4 times BVNK’s Series B valuation, reached just over a year after that round closed.
BVNK’s Valuation, Round by Round
| Round | Date | Amount Raised | Valuation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Series A | May 2022 | $40M | $340M |
| Series B | Dec 2024 | $50M | $750M |
| Mastercard acquisition | Mar–Aug 2026 | – | Up to $1.8B |
Visa Is Betting on Partnership, Mastercard Bet on Ownership
Where Mastercard chose to buy the infrastructure outright, Visa has kept expanding its own stablecoin push through partnership instead. On March 3, 2026, Visa and Stripe-owned Bridge announced an expanded stablecoin-linked card program, already live in 18 countries with a stated target of more than 100 by the end of 2026.
The contrast is direct: one card network bought a stablecoin infrastructure company outright; the other is scaling access to a different infrastructure company’s rails through a commercial agreement.
What Happens to BVNK’s Visa Direct Ties Now?
In an Aug. 3 update on BVNK’s website, published under CEO Jesse Hemson-Struthers’ byline, tells customers that nothing changes for BVNK customers today: same teams, same products, no action required. BVNK’s official X account echoed the framing the same day:
BVNK is now part of Mastercard. Together, we’re creating one trusted network for every form of money, enabling customers to move value across currencies, borders and payment systems. Learn more: https://t.co/4JNikZp7F4
— BVNK (@BVNKFinance) August 3, 2026
Neither post addresses the Visa Direct integration specifically, the arrangement that put BVNK’s stablecoin infrastructure to work inside a competing card network’s own payments product just months before that same infrastructure firm changed hands. Mastercard, BVNK and Visa have all said plenty about what this deal means for their own strategies.
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