02:17 PM EDT, 03/17/2026 (MT Newswires) -- Mastercard ( MA ) agreed to acquire stablecoin infrastructure provider BVNK for up to $1.8 billion, as the card payment giant seeks to boost its digital asset capabilities.

The deal, which includes $300 million in contingent payments, is expected to close before the end of the year, according to a statement issued Tuesday.

Stablecoins are designed to avoid wild price swings of native crypto assets like Bitcoin, according to an International Monetary Fund blog published late last year. Both are based on distributed ledgers, but stablecoins are centralized and mostly backed by conventional and liquid financial assets.

Digital currency payment use cases reached at least $350 billion in volume in last year, Mastercard ( MA ) said.

BVNK's digital asset infrastructure complements and extends Mastercard's ( MA ) payments network, creating interoperability between fiat and stablecoins, according to the statement. Most modern currencies, such as the US dollar and euro, fall into the fiat money category.

"We expect that most financial institutions and fintechs will in time provide digital currency services, be it with stablecoins or tokenized deposits," Mastercard ( MA ) Chief Product Officer Jorn Lambert said. "Adding on-chain rails to our network will support speed and programmability for virtually every type of transaction."

BVNK's platform enables sending and receiving payments on all major blockchain networks across more than 130 countries, according to the statement.

"This deal brings together complementary capabilities to define and deliver the future of money," BVNK Co-Founder and CEO Jesse Hemson-Struthers said. "Together, we're able to deliver an unprecedented infrastructure for digital currency-based financial services."

Earlier this month, Mastercard ( MA ) rival Visa (V) expanded its collaboration with Bridge, a stablecoin infrastructure platform.

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