Mastercard expands into digital assets space with BVNK acquisition

(Sharecast News) - Payments giant Mastercard has announced the $1.8bn acquisition of stablecoin infrastructure firm BVNK, which the firm says will enable it to address new use cases with stablecoins, tokenised deposits and tokenised assets.

Mastercard said the deal expands its support of digital assets and value movement across currencies, rails and regions, and that there are opportunities for stablecoins and tokenised deposits in use cases like cross-border remittances, payouts, P2P and B2B payments.

"The key to support these use cases is to connect these rails seamlessly to existing fiat rails, applying the security, reliability and compliance standards that are the bedrock of payments. Mastercard is investing to ensure these payment options can be plugged into its network to ensure accessibility, interoperability and trust," the company said.

Commenting on the acquisition, Mastercard's chief product officer Jorn Lambert said the company expects most financial institutions to provide digital currency services "in time".

"We want to support them and their customers with a best in class, highly compliant, interoperable offering that brings the benefits of tokenised money to the real world [...] Adding on-chain rails to our network will support speed and programmability for virtually every type of transaction."

Mastercard shares were up 0.7% at $512.11 by 1458 GMT.