Mastercard today announced a definitive agreement to acquire BVNK, a stablecoin-powered financial stack for enterprises, for up to $1.8 billion, including $300 million in contingent payments.

The deal further expands Mastercard’s end-to-end support of digital assets and value movement across currencies, rails and regions.

Bringing the capabilities of BVNK and Mastercard together is poised to deliver trusted interoperability at scale that can seamlessly connect across systems.

“We expect that most financial institutions and fintechs will in time provide digital currency services, be it with stablecoins or tokenized deposits. We want to support them and their customers with a best in class, highly compliant, interoperable offering that brings the benefits of tokenized money to the real world,” said Jorn Lambert, Chief Product Officer, Mastercard. “This acquisition reinforces what we have always done, using innovation and technology to power economies and empower people. Adding on-chain rails to our network will support speed and programmability for virtually every type of transaction.”

The acquisition adds to the company’s recent commitments, such as the Mastercard Crypto Partner Program, to foster more collaboration and innovation to maximize the opportunity in the next phase of on-chain payments for all involved.

Since its founding in 2021, BVNK has built deep expertise and industry-leading infrastructure to bridge fiat and stablecoins. Today, the BVNK platform enables sending and receiving payments for its customers on all major blockchain networks across more than 130 countries.

“For all of the advancements made in simplifying the digital currency opportunity, we have only scratched the surface of what’s possible,” said Jesse Hemson-Struthers, Co-Founder and CEO, BVNK. “This deal brings together complementary capabilities to define and deliver the future of money. Together, we’re able to deliver an unprecedented infrastructure for digital currency-based financial services.”

The combined activities of Mastercard and BVNK would deliver a digital asset- and chain-agnostic approach, allowing customers to access the solutions best suited to their needs, without being locked into closed ecosystems.

The transaction, which is anticipated to close before the end of the year, is subject to regulatory review and other customary closing conditions.