Coinbase Abandons $2 Billion Acquisition of Stablecoin Firm BVNK: Fortune

Coinbase has ended negotiations to acquire stablecoin startup BVNK, according to a Fortune report on Tuesday. Sources told the publication that the proposed deal was valued at approximately $2 billion.

Both the American crypto exchange and Mastercard had been in advanced discussions to acquire BVNK, the UK-based fintech firm that builds stablecoin infrastructure. Coinbase and BVNK then entered exclusive negotiations.

“After discussing a potential acquisition of BVNK, both parties mutually agreed to not move forward,” a Coinbase spokesperson told Decrypt. 

Decrypt also reached out to BVNK for comment, but did not immediately receive a reply. 

BVNK, which helps firms integrate stablecoins into payments, raised $50 million last December at a $750 million valuation. Earlier this year, payments giant Visa made a strategic investment in the firm, though the amount was not disclosed. 

The proposed $2 billion deal would have been a sizable premium over another recent acquisition of a stablecoin infrastructure firm. Private payments firm Stripe acquired stablecoin platform Bridge for $1.1 billion last October, completing the deal this February in one of the crypto industry’s largest ever acquisitions. 

Coinbase already maintains strong ties to stablecoin products, holding a major stake in USDC issuer Circle, which launched its massively successful IPO earlier this year. The acquisition of BVNK could have provided the firm with “vertical integration to own both issuance (USDC via Circle) and enterprise distribution,” analysts told Decrypt in October.

Last month, Coinbase released a stablecoin payments platform to help businesses modernize their financial operations while onboarding themselves to crypto rails. The leading American exchange recently completed a $375 million acquisition of fundraising platform Echo and its token sale product, Sonar. 

Stablecoins have grown massively in the last year, with its total market cap growing by more than $120 billion over the past 12 months, according to data from DeFiLlama. The total market cap stands around $305 billion at the time of writing, down about 0.67% in the last seven days. 

Predictors on Myriad don’t see near-term explosive growth though, with odds of the total market cap reaching $360 billion by February standing at just 20% as of Tuesday.  (Disclaimer: Myriad Markets is a product of Decrypt’s parent company, DASTAN).

Editor’s note: This story was updated after publication with additional detail.