Mastercard is in late-stage talks to buy Zerohash for roughly $1.5b to $2b, a move that would deepen the card network’s push into stablecoin and on-chain settlement, Fortune reported Wednesday.
Founded in 2017, Chicago-based Zerohash provides the plumbing that lets fintechs, brokers and merchants add crypto, stablecoin and tokenization features via APIs, including compliant custody, conversions and payouts.
Bringing that stack in-house would give Mastercard more direct control over how fiat funding and digital assets settle across its rails, a priority as banks and payment companies experiment with 24/7 money.
If completed, the acquisition would be one of Mastercard’s biggest bets on stablecoins, reflecting a broader shift as large payment providers look to blockchains for faster cross-border transfers and lower operating costs.
The company has already rolled out on- and off-ramp services with crypto partners and piloted programs that translate crypto balances into spendable fiat at the point of sale.
The competitive backdrop is heating up. Stripe recently bought stablecoin infrastructure firm Bridge in a deal reported around $1.1b, while Coinbase has been in advanced talks to acquire London-based BVNK in what could become the largest pure-play stablecoin acquisition to date.
Those moves signal a race to secure enterprise-grade issuers, compliance tooling and payout networks before stablecoin volumes migrate from trading venues into mainstream payments.
For Mastercard, Zerohash could accelerate stablecoin settlement for corporate and marketplace flows, and help the network offer programmable payouts that match crypto’s always-on cadence. Banks are also testing tokenized deposits and on-chain treasury tools, creating demand for intermediaries that can bridge fiat accounts, compliance checks and public chains without forcing merchants to rebuild their stacks.
