MasterCard (MA) is reportedly looking to acquire blockchain infrastructure startup zero hash as competition for stablecoin payments heats up.
Global payment and card issuer is in final stages of talks and could pay $1.5 billion-$2 billion for crypto firm, fortune reported on Wednesday citing sources familiar with the matter. That comes as mastercard can lose against Coinbase on bidding For crypto payment firm bvnk, report added.
The news comes as StableCoins, or cryptocurrencies tied to fiat money like the US dollar, have emerged as the next frontier for global payment flows. These digital tokens aim to offer a cheaper, faster alternative to traditional railways by being organized on blockchains, bypassing banks. StableCoin payment volume could reach $1 trillion by 2030 with institutional adoption, FX settlement and cross-border growth, a report by Keyrock and Bitso this past summer expected.
VISA plans to launch a tokenization platform, which helps banks issue and hold StableCoins. For example, Stripe got it own blockchain rail with a paradigm.
Zero Hash, which specializes in providing StableCoin payment infrastructure, processed $2 billion in tokenized fund flow in the first four months of the year amid increasing institutional demand for on-chain assets, the firm said Coindesk in April. The initiation raised $ 104 million led by interactive brokers and Morgan Stanley in September.
Zero Hash did not immediately return a request for comment.
Read more: Investment bank Mizuho says visa is becoming the ‘stablecoin of stablecoins’
