{"id":90445,"date":"2025-10-30T10:15:26","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T08:15:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=90445"},"modified":"2025-10-30T09:20:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T07:20:15","slug":"mastercard-to-acquire-crypto-startup-zerohash-for-2-billion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/mastercard-to-acquire-crypto-startup-zerohash-for-2-billion\/","title":{"rendered":"Mastercard to Acquire Crypto Startup Zerohash for $2 Billion"},"content":{"rendered":"

Payment giant Mastercard is set to acquire cryptocurrency startup Zerohash, with the deal valued at $2 billion, according to Fortune<\/a>, citing anonymous sources.<\/p>\n

Zerohash, a Chicago-based platform founded in 2017, provides technological and regulatory tools for banks, fintech companies, and brokers. These tools enable clients to launch cryptocurrency trading, stablecoins<\/a>, and asset tokenization projects<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In September, the startup was valued at $1 billion<\/a> during a Series D funding round of $104 million, led by Interactive Brokers with support from Morgan Stanley and SoFi.<\/p>\n

Mastercard has been engaging with the crypto industry for several years and has recently been actively exploring the stablecoin sector.<\/p>\n

In April 2025, the company announced<\/a> a partnership with Circle, Paxos, and Nuvei, launching payments in stablecoins. In September, Mastercard supported<\/a> Kazakhstan’s central bank in launching a stablecoin pilot project.<\/p>\n

Visa Bets on Stablecoins<\/h2>\n

Mastercard’s competitor, Visa, is also actively developing its digital assets strategy, focusing on stablecoin integration. Analysts at investment bank William Blair believe this initiative will be a key driver of the firm’s future stock growth, reports The Block<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Earlier, Visa CEO Ryan McInerney confirmed<\/a> that the company will add support for four stablecoins on various blockchains.<\/p>\n

Experts Andrew Jeffrey and Christopher Kennedy suggest that the main opportunity for stablecoins lies in cross-border corporate payments rather than domestic consumer transactions.<\/p>\n

William Blair noted that international operations account for less than 15% of Visa’s total payments. However, the company is well-positioned to capture a share of the approximately $20 trillion market as digital payment systems are adopted.<\/p>\n

Analysts also described Visa’s stock underperformance as “unsustainable,” with shares rising about 10% since the beginning of the year compared to a 17% increase in the S&P 500 index. They predict a “rapid recovery” in the stock’s value.<\/p>\n

William Blair reaffirmed its “outperform” rating for Visa’s shares, forecasting growth of more than 15% over the next 12 months.<\/p>\n

The note also mentioned that a William Blair-affiliated company is a market maker<\/a> for Visa securities and expects to receive compensation for investment banking services in the next three months.<\/p>\n

Back in May, the company invested<\/a> in the UK startup BVNK, which is developing infrastructure for stablecoin transactions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Payment giant Mastercard is set to acquire cryptocurrency startup Zerohash, with the deal valued at $2 billion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":90446,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"1","news_style_id":"1","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"Mastercard to acquire Zerohash for $2 billion.","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[83,70,807,157],"class_list":["post-90445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-business","tag-mastercard","tag-stablecoins","tag-visa"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"167","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"1","short_excerpt":"Mastercard to acquire Zerohash for $2 billion.","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90445"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90445\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":90447,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90445\/revisions\/90447"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}