Mastercard is reportedly in advanced talks to acquire Zero Hash, a regulated crypto settlement network, for a whopping $1.5 billion to $2 billion. This move would mark a significant investment in the crypto space, allowing Mastercard to process card and account-to-account payments in regulated stablecoins and reduce settlement delays. According to Reuters, the acquisition would make Mastercard one of the largest payment processors in the world, with a regulated crypto settlement network.
Zero Hash, founded in 2017, is a silent infrastructure behind several tokenization efforts, operating under equivalent virtual asset frameworks in Europe, Canada, and Australia. The company is regulated as a money transmitter throughout the United States and holds a New York BitLicense. It already processes payment flows for issuers such as BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, and Republic, enabling the value transfer of their tokenized funds across 22 chains and seven major stablecoins.
Rebuilding Investing around Stablecoins
The acquisition is not just another corporate experiment with digital assets; it’s an attempt to rebuild investing itself around stablecoins rather than banks. Zero Hash’s infrastructure would allow Mastercard to offer APIs and licenses, providing a template for how traditional payments giants might survive change by adopting crypto infrastructure before it absorbs them. This move would enable Mastercard to process card and account-to-account payments in regulated stablecoins, reducing settlement delays to near real-time.
The company has already hinted at this direction with its wallets-to-checkouts stablecoin pilot launched in April 2025. However, a purchase would turn it into infrastructure, allowing Mastercard to control a comparable channel to Visa, which has partnered with Allium to publish stablecoin analysis, and Stripe, which has quietly re-enabled USDC settlement. PayPal also operates its own token, and Mastercard risks disintermediation unless it controls a comparable channel itself.
The Growing Market of Stablecoins and Tokenized Treasuries
Zero Hash lies at the intersection of two rapidly growing markets: stablecoins and tokenized treasuries. The company’s infrastructure would give Mastercard an entry point not just into consumer payments but also into institutional treasury flows, a part of the market where instant, programmable settlement could replace the slower network of correspondent banks and clearinghouses. According to a16z’s State of Crypto 2025 report, there is currently a total of more than $300 billion in circulation, with monthly on-chain settlements of around $1.25 trillion.
The majority of this volume still flows between exchanges and DeFi protocols; however, a growing share is in cross-border withdrawals and fintech wallets, the very niches where card networks are struggling to maintain high margins. The overlap between these two systems, consumer payouts and institutional liquidity, could explain why Mastercard is willing to pay around double Zero Hash’s last valuation. Much of the $35 billion currently locked in on-chain real-world asset products, primarily short-term T-bills that back stablecoins, is transacted through companies like Zero Hash.
The Rail War Continues
If the deal closes, it would be the first time a premier card network has a fully regulated stablecoin processor. In the broader context, it is a silent arms race, with Visa, Stripe, and even Coinbase investing in fiat-to-stablecoin bridges to capture future settlement fees. Everyone knows that whoever runs the compliant, always-available layer between bank accounts and blockchains will effectively own the next generation of payments. Mastercard’s move reframes this race: instead of experimenting on the side, the company is setting the course internally.
There are hurdles, including change of control approvals from state regulators, the NYDFS, and European authorities under MiCA, which could take months. Although the US Senate stablecoin bill passed earlier this year, it is still awaiting full passage. Nevertheless, the direction of policy is clear, with both the US and EU frameworks now treating fiat-backed stablecoins as legitimate financial instruments and setting reserve and disclosure standards that institutional users can accept.
The economics are tempting, with even a fraction of the global stablecoin flow generating significant revenue if monetized like a network. A 0.75% share of the $12 trillion annual stablecoin volume would give Mastercard approximately $90 billion in addressable settlement activity. At a combined take rate of 12 to 20 basis points, that equates to potential annual revenue of $100 million to $180 million, which is small next to the $25 billion in revenue but is growing significantly faster than card transactions.
For more information, visit https://cryptoslate.com/has-mastercard-accepted-the-inevitability-of-crypto-spends-2b-on-tokenization-platform/
