The battle for the future of payments: Visa, Mastercard and stablecoins

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The battle for the future of payments

Mastercard makes its move

Stablecoins are rapidly becoming one of the fastest-growing segments of global payments. Their combined market capitalization now exceeds $300 billion, while transaction volumes continue to climb as businesses adopt them for cross-border settlement. Mastercard wants to play a much bigger role in that future.

The company completed its acquisition of stablecoin infrastructure provider BVNK this week, closing a deal first announced in March. While Mastercard did not disclose the final purchase price, it had previously agreed to acquire the company for up to $1.8 billion, making it one of the largest acquisitions in the digital asset sector.

Founded in 2021, BVNK has built infrastructure that enables businesses to move seamlessly between traditional currencies and stablecoins. Operating in more than 130 countries, the company focuses on cross-border payments, settlement and treasury management, areas where stablecoins are increasingly finding real-world applications.

Mastercard believes that growth is only beginning. "Digital currencies, particularly stablecoins, are increasingly addressing real-world needs in areas like cross-border B2B payments, remittances, payouts, settlement and treasury flows," said Jorn Lambert, the company's Chief Product Officer. Payments research firm FXC Intelligence reached a similar conclusion, describing the acquisition as "a bullish statement on the future role of stablecoins in cross-border payments and beyond." The acquisition also comes with an unexpected twist.

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The rivalry is expanding

Earlier this year, Visa announced that BVNK would help power stablecoin payouts through Visa Direct, allowing businesses to send USDC and other digital assets across multiple markets. At the time, the company became part of Visa's strategy for expanding stablecoin capabilities. A few months later, Mastercard completed its acquisition of the same company.

The deal highlights two different approaches to the same opportunity. Visa has largely expanded through partnerships, integrating USDC settlement into parts of its network and working with specialist infrastructure providers such as BVNK. Mastercard, meanwhile, has invested more heavily in building and acquiring blockchain infrastructure through initiatives including Crypto Credential, the Multi-Token Network and now BVNK.

The approaches differ, but both point toward the same objective: making blockchain-based money part of mainstream payment infrastructure rather than a parallel financial system. Their rivalry is no longer limited to debit and credit cards. Increasingly, it is about the payment rails that could underpin the next generation of global commerce.

Why stablecoins matter to payment giants

For years, stablecoins were viewed primarily as tools for cryptocurrency traders. That perception is changing as businesses increasingly use digital dollars for cross-border payments, treasury management and settlement.

Unlike traditional international transfers, which often rely on correspondent banking networks and operate only during business hours, stablecoin transactions can settle around the clock, often within minutes. That makes them attractive for companies moving money across borders.

For payment networks, that matters because stablecoins are beginning to compete not with cards, but with the infrastructure that moves money internationally. Rather than resisting that shift, Visa and Mastercard appear determined to remain part of it. Neither company is trying to become a stablecoin issuer. Instead, both are racing to build the infrastructure businesses will use to move those assets.

Who is the real competitor?

It is tempting to view the acquisition as another chapter in the decades-long rivalry between Visa and Mastercard. In reality, both companies are responding to a much broader competitive landscape. Stripe has expanded its stablecoin capabilities following its acquisition of Bridge, Circle continues building payment infrastructure around USDC, PayPal has launched its own stablecoin, and banks worldwide are experimenting with tokenized deposits and blockchain settlement.

The competitive question is no longer simply whether Visa can outperform Mastercard. It is whether established payment networks can remain central to global money movement as blockchain-native infrastructure becomes increasingly capable of performing many of the same functions.

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