Visa

Aug 18, 2026

Visa seeks new stablecoin settlement partner after BVNK moved to Mastercard

Visa is searching for a new partner to handle stablecoin settlement after BVNK, which previously filled that role, was acquired by Mastercard earlier this year, according to documents reviewed by CoinDesk. The payments company’s request for product calls for a firm that can support swaps across multiple stablecoins and provide settlement services for the newly introduced Open USD project. Visa is specifically seeking a settlement and over-the-counter partner with cryptocurrency exchange licenses in the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and Singapore, a requirement that narrows the list of candidates. The documents say the partner would support Open USD, a project backed by Stripe, Visa and Mastercard that is designed to work with more than one stablecoin. The search comes as stablecoins remain a key battleground for major payments companies even while other parts of the crypto market stay subdued. CoinGecko data cited by CoinDesk puts the sector’s total market capitalization at about $300 billion. The report also points to Stripe’s late-2024 acquisition of Bridge for $1.1 billion as a move that increased competitive pressure. Last month, Visa launched its Visa Stablecoin Platform, with OUSD as the first supported token. Visa declined to comment.

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Policy Regulation

Aug 15, 2026

Mastercard’s $1.8 billion crypto transactions and U.S. digital asset bill talks draw focus this week

Crypto markets are moving deeper into a more regulated and institutional phase, with U.S. lawmakers discussing the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act while regulators work on related rulemaking at the same time. One of the week’s main talking points is Mastercard’s $1.8 billion in crypto transactions. Bitcoin is also sending mixed signals: major corporate holders and mining firms are selling BTC, while large wallets and hedge funds are adding to long positions. At the same time, Wall Street is expanding its involvement in selected crypto products and infrastructure. The market pullback is also pushing weaker projects, exchanges, and tokenization businesses to exit or restructure. The report was cited by CoinDesk.

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Policy and Regulation

Aug 15, 2026

Clarity hangs on as Mastercard’s $1.8 billion deal joins crypto’s weekly watchlist

CoinDesk’s roundup of the week’s five biggest crypto stories centered on a narrow survival for the Clarity effort in Washington, fresh signs of Wall Street expanding its digital-asset push, and a security scare that sent billions of dollars worth of bitcoin moving between wallets. The list also highlighted selling activity tied to Strategy and pointed readers to the less-discussed story behind Mastercard’s $1.8 billion deal. The article framed the week as one in which policy, institutional finance and operational risk all collided at once. Washington kept alive what CoinDesk described as crypto’s biggest legislative hope, even if only by a slim margin. At the same time, traditional finance firms kept moving deeper into the sector. The roundup was written by Aoyon Ashraf and AI Boost, and edited by Nikhilesh De and Sheldon Reback. It was published on Aug. 15, 2026.

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stablecoin

Aug 12, 2026

Rain Acquires Ansa; Founder Sophia Goldberg Named Head of Payments

Stablecoin card platform Rain has acquired Ansa, a branded stored-value and closed-loop payments provider. Ansa's team will join, with founder and CEO Sophia Goldberg named head of payments. Ansa offers prepaid wallets for merchants, enabling Mastercard spending at POS terminals. Rain plans to expand stored-value use cases with its Visa and Mastercard issuing. Ansa had raised about $19.4 million.

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Rain

Aug 11, 2026

Rain Buys Ansa to Add Merchant Wallet Software and Link Prefunded Balances to Card Issuing

Stablecoin card issuer Rain has acquired Ansa, a startup that sells software for merchant-branded prepaid wallets. The deal adds a fiat-based stored-value product rather than a stablecoin system: Ansa’s wallets hold prepaid dollar balances that customers load in advance and spend with the issuing brand. Rain said it plans to combine those balances with its Visa and Mastercard issuing stack so funds can also be used outside the original merchant, while bringing wallets, rewards and stablecoins onto one platform. Ansa was founded in 2022 by former Adyen manager Sophia Goldberg and former Affirm engineer JT Cho. The company emerged from stealth in April 2023 with $5.4 million led by Bain Capital Ventures, then raised a $14 million Series A led by Renegade Partners in April 2024, bringing disclosed funding to $19.4 million. Goldberg will join Rain as head of payments. Rain also tied the acquisition to agentic commerce, saying programmable stored balances with limits on who can spend, where, and by when map to the same core primitive as the scoped cards it offers for AI agents. The acquisition marks Rain’s second purchase in nine months, following its Uptop deal in November 2025.

1240

Gate

Aug 11, 2026

Gate Completes USDT Dividend Payout for 100 US Stocks Including ASML and Mastercard

Gate has completed the latest round of cash dividend distribution for 100 US-listed stocks, paying out the dividends in USDT to eligible users. Holders of the relevant stocks at the snapshot time received pro-rata settlements automatically, with no action required on their part. The payout round covers stocks with corporate dividend dates from August 3 to August 7, 2026, spanning sectors such as technology and semiconductors, financial services, energy, consumer goods, healthcare, industrials, real estate REITs, utilities, materials, media and entertainment, telecom, and strategy ETFs. Representative names include ASML (ASML), Mastercard (MA), Costco (COST), and General Dynamics (GD).

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Mastercard

Aug 10, 2026

Mastercard Completes $1.8B Acquisition of Stablecoin Infrastructure Firm BVNK

Mastercard has completed its $1.8 billion acquisition of BVNK, a company that provides infrastructure for stablecoins, after a heated race that also involved Coinbase and Visa. Although Coinbase's offer was reportedly higher, BVNK ultimately chose Mastercard, citing closer cultural compatibility and stronger strategic alignment. The deal was reported by CoinDesk. It lands as major payment players including Stripe, Visa, Mastercard and Coinbase compete for position in a stablecoin market estimated at roughly $300 billion. The acquisition adds BVNK's stablecoin infrastructure to Mastercard's portfolio and reflects how mainstream payment firms are now investing in the plumbing of stablecoin-based transactions.

2260

Policy Regulation

Aug 10, 2026

Funding Weekly: Mastercard closes BVNK acquisition as Yellow Card raises $40 million

PANews’ weekly funding roundup showed a pickup in crypto deal activity from Aug. 3 to Aug. 9, with 12 disclosed blockchain financing events totaling more than $94.9 million. Capital was concentrated in infrastructure, stablecoins, real-world assets and centralized finance, while DePIN, GameFi and rewards platforms also logged fresh deals. The headline M&A transaction came from Mastercard, which said it had completed its acquisition of stablecoin infrastructure company BVNK, a deal previously reported in March as being worth up to $1.8 billion. On the financing side, Yellow Card announced a $40 million strategic round backed by SC Ventures, Sony Innovation Fund, Polychain Capital and Blockchain Capital. Other disclosed transactions included rounds for Blockspace, MAGNE.AI, InvestiFi, JPYC, Dow Protocol, Vangrid and Bundle. PANews also tracked a separate wave of AI and robotics funding, where large checks continued to cluster around infrastructure, cloud capacity, optical networking and enterprise agent platforms, with Sequoia Capital, Index Ventures and the newly launched 224 Ventures also stepping up commitments to the sector.

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