Visa seeks new partner for stablecoin settlement after Mastercard snags BVNK

In the corporate payments world, Visa finds itself searching for a new partner after Mastercard completed its acquisition of BVNK, the London-based stablecoin infrastructure firm that had been powering a key part of Visa’s real-time settlement network. How Visa lost its stablecoin partner Visa Ventures made a strategic investment in BVNK back in May 2025, signaling serious interest in the startup’s ability to process stablecoin payments around the clock across more than 130 countries. That investment matured into a formal partnership announced on January 14, 2026. BVNK’s technology became a critical piece of Visa Direct, the company’s real-time payments network, enabling stablecoin-denominated settlements for merchants and financial institutions worldwide. Then Mastercard showed up with a bigger check. On March 17, 2026, Mastercard announced it had agreed to acquire BVNK for up to $1.8 billion. The deal closed on August 3, 2026, and Visa’s stablecoin settlement partner became a wholly owned subsidiary of its competitor. The acquisition gave Mastercard instant access to BVNK’s 24/7 stablecoin settlement capabilities and its operational reach spanning over 130 countries. The scale of...