Coinbase’s CEO says no other payment rail can match stablecoins for speed and reach, so where will the exchange turn its attention to next?
Coinbase and BVNK have mutually agreed to cease negotiations in what would have been the largest acquisitions of a stablecoin payment startup.
Fortune revealed on November 11 that neither company had specified why the deal had fallen through, despite Coinbase being granted exclusivity in October.
The acquisition had reportedly been expected to complete later this year or early 2026 after the US crypto exchange beat out Mastercard during advanced talks.
The deal appeared even more likely as Coinbase Ventures – Coinbase’s investment arm – was already an investor in the UK-based stablecoin payment firm.
Coinbase and BVNK were reportedly in the due diligence phase of negotiations, which involves verifying facts, risk assessments, and a total valuation of a company before a deal can be agreed.
A $2bn figure was the reported price for Coinbase to acquire BVNK.
“After discussing a potential acquisition of BVNK, both parties mutually agreed to not move forward,” said a statement by Coinbase to Payment Expert.
Do Coinbase look elsewhere?
With the BVNK deal now off the table, it remains to be seen whether Coinbase will look to another stablecoin payment or infrastructure platform to complement its pre-existing offerings.
During Coinbase’s Q3’ 2025 earnings call, Emilie Choi – President and COO of Coinbase – said the door remained wide open for opportunities.
“When we look to the spectrum of opportunities, we do look a lot to some of the best tech companies of all time and how they were able to use M&A to massively accelerate adoption, and so we’re very excited about some of the opportunities on the horizon,” she said.
One company likely off the table is Zero Hash. Despite Coinbase beating out Mastercard to hold exclusivity talks with BVNK, the global card network is reportedly in late-stage talks to acquire the stablecoin and digital asset infrastructure firm.
Over the past few years there has been a surge in stablecoin infrastructure acquisitions. The stablecoin market cap is currently just under $300bn which has increased from $220bn during the mid-year.
Tether’s USDT remains the largest single stablecoin per market cap at $183.5bn, followed in second by Circle’s USDC at $76.05bn.
This has been complemented with the rise in adoption of stablecoin payments. BVNK found that $8.9 trillion of on-chain volume processed globally for the first half of 2025 was settled by stablecoins. This was attributed to new global regulatory standards, such as the GENIUS Act in the US and Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) stablecoin rules in Europe, and use cases revealing the benefits of cross-border instant settlement.
Stripe still currently holds the record for the largest acquisition of a stablecoin company after completing a $1.1bn deal to acquire Bridge in February 2025. Startup company Beam was also acquired by payments firm Modern Treasury for $40m in October 2025.
CEO Brian Armstrong said during the exchanges’ latest earnings call that while the crypto exchange remains committed to its M&A strategy over the next several years, with an eye on acquiring two to three exchanges, gaining value out of companies remains the hardest part.
As a co-issuer of the second-largest stablecoin, USDC, Armstrong also remains committed in scaling its stablecoin payment offerings, recognising the surge in interest from traditional finance firms in settling for cross-border payments.
“The majority of global payments will shift to stablecoins over time because they allow you to send money anywhere in the world in under one second for less than $0.01,” said Armstrong. “No other payment rail can match this.”
“Adoption is already well underway as stablecoin market cap hit $300bn driven by companies and financial institutions using them for payments and treasury, and we expect policy tailwinds like the GENIUS Act to continue to accelerate this.”
Industry reaction
The Coinbase-BVNK deal now off may have come to a surprise to many within the industry due to several reports in the past of the deal edging closer to an agreement.
Writer for Fintech Brainfood, Simon Taylor, believes Mastercard could switch gears and divert its attention back to BVNK, leaving an opportunity for Coinbase to become interested in Zero Hash.
He also emphasised the importance of recognising who BVNK’s investors are, such as Visa and Citi, alluding they may not have been willing to allow Coinbase to acquire an asset during a potential pre-boom period and not benefit from.
