Mastercard's BVNK Natively Integrates Stellar Stablecoin Payment Network
Mastercard's stablecoin payment infrastructure company BVNK announced native support for the Stellar network on its platform, allowing enterprise clients to directly transact stablecoins on Stellar through BVNK without needing to build their own on-chain technology.
With this integration, Stellar becomes another public chain supported by BVNK, which previously supported Ethereum, Solana, Polygon, Base, BNB Chain, Arbitrum, and Tron. Stellar transactions settle in about 5 seconds with fees under 1 cent, and the network operates at a 99.99% uptime, targeting high-frequency, low-value, cross-border enterprise payments. According to public data, the payment volume on the Stellar network is projected to be about $55.6 billion by 2025.
BVNK operates in over 130 countries and regions, holds more than 25 regulatory licenses, and has an annual payment processing volume exceeding $30 billion. Its service scenarios include cross-border B2B payments, remittances, bulk payments, settlements, and corporate fund management. Kim Mescal Julien, head of partnerships at BVNK, stated, "The future of global payments is multi-chain and multi-asset, but enterprises should not bear the burden of underlying engineering." Denelle Dixon, CEO of the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF), commented, "Enterprises that transfer funds at scale need to ensure it operates smoothly on every occasion and through every channel."
This is one of the first network expansions for BVNK following Mastercard's acquisition. Mastercard announced the acquisition of BVNK in March 2026 for a total consideration of $1.5 billion upfront plus $300 million in performance-based earnouts, totaling up to $1.8 billion. This marks the first time a large publicly listed traditional payment company has entered the stablecoin infrastructure space through acquisition; the deal was completed on August 3. Mastercard's Chief Product Officer Jorn Lambert noted that stablecoins are addressing real needs in cross-border B2B payments, remittances, payments, settlements, and fund management.
At the same time, Stellar is attracting traditional financial institutions: U.S. Bank is piloting a stablecoin called USBDC on Stellar, and the U.S. securities depository DTCC plans to integrate its tokenization services with Stellar. Following the announcement, Stellar's native token XLM rose 2.7% to approximately $0.2135, with a weekly increase of 11.2%.
Market Mechanism: This infrastructure expansion is driven by an integrated announcement rather than a capital transaction. The buyers are enterprise clients needing cross-border payment solutions, including payment service providers, remittance companies, trading platforms, and multinational corporate treasury departments, all of which require low-cost, quick-access stablecoin channels. The sellers and suppliers are the Stellar network and its stablecoin issuers, gaining enterprise-level distribution channels through integration with Mastercard's system. The flow of funds is shifting from cross-border B2B and remittance funds through SWIFT agents and traditional remittance channels to a path of "fiat deposit → stablecoin on-chain transfer → local fiat withdrawal." Beneficiaries include Mastercard (which occupies the conversion node between stablecoins and fiat), the Stellar ecosystem, XLM, and stablecoin issuers like USDC; the pressured parties are traditional remittance companies and intermediaries that rely on agent networks for exchange rate margins and fees, as well as other public chains not yet integrated into mainstream payment platforms.
Source: Public Information
ABAB AI Insight
BVNK was founded in London in 2021 by Jesse Hemson-Struthers, Chris Harmse, and Donald Jackson, initially focusing on crypto payment gateways before transforming into a stablecoin payment infrastructure for enterprises. In December 2024, it completed a $50 million Series B funding round led by Haun Ventures, with Citi Ventures also among the investors; in May 2025, it received a strategic investment from Visa. In the second half of 2025, Coinbase discussed a potential acquisition of BVNK for about $2 billion, which ultimately did not materialize. A few months later, BVNK was acquired by Mastercard for up to $1.8 billion. The fact that a company simultaneously invested in by Visa, pursued by Coinbase, and ultimately owned by Mastercard indicates that stablecoin infrastructure has become a target of competition among payment giants.
Stellar was founded in 2014 by Jed McCaleb, the founder of Mt. Gox and co-founder of Ripple, with a focus on cross-border payments and inclusive finance from the start. Its key asset is its compliance with institutional partners: in 2021, it partnered with MoneyGram to facilitate the entry and exit of USDC and cash; that same year, Franklin Templeton registered shares of its U.S. government money fund FOBXX on Stellar, making it the first registered fund in the U.S. to record shares on a public chain; in 2025, PayPal's stablecoin PYUSD was launched on Stellar. Unlike Solana and Base, which compete for DeFi and consumer applications, Stellar is pursuing a "dedicated chain for institutional payments," which is precisely the asset that B2B payment platforms like BVNK and Mastercard need.
In terms of capital pathways, Mastercard is replicating Stripe's playbook. In October 2024, Stripe announced its acquisition of stablecoin infrastructure company Bridge for $1.1 billion, with the deal completed in February 2025, followed by the launch of its payment-specific chain Tempo; Visa has been using USDC on Solana for cross-border settlements since 2023 and has directly invested in BVNK. The paths of the three giants differ: Stripe focuses on "acquisition + self-built chain," Visa on "investment + settlement pilot," and Mastercard on "acquisition + multi-chain integration," but their goals are aligned: to secure the conversion entry between fiat and on-chain assets before stablecoins replace some functions of card organizations and agent banks. Following the signing of the U.S. GENIUS Act in July 2025, stablecoins gained federal legal status, marking the transition from pilot phases to large-scale expansion.
Structural Judgment: This represents a restructuring of the industry chain, centered on the redistribution of the cross-border payment value chain. Traditional cross-border payments involve multiple layers, including the originating bank, agent banks, clearing networks, and receiving banks, each charging exchange rate margins and fees, with settlement taking 1 to 5 days. Stablecoins compress the intermediate steps into a single on-chain transfer, leaving only two charging points: the entry and exit of fiat at both ends, as well as compliance and identity verification. Consequently, value shifts from the middle layer (agent banks, SWIFT messages, clearing) to the entry points at both ends. Mastercard's acquisition of BVNK and integration with Stellar actively transforms it from an "intermediary clearing network" into a "two-end conversion node": while on-chain transfer costs approach zero, the exchange, compliance, and risk control capabilities between fiat and stablecoins become the new profit center. Multi-chain integration allows Mastercard to avoid betting on which public chain will prevail, simply needing to secure entry and exit points across all mainstream networks.
ABAB News · Cognitive Laws
- When channels become free, entry points become expensive.
- If you can't beat the new network, buy its switches.
- In a multi-chain era, don't bet on chains, just on entry and exit points.
- A few numbers need to be verified:
- BVNK's processing volume: Different sources provide inconsistent figures, one states an annualized volume of about $39 billion, while another mentions "over $30 billion in stablecoin processing volume post-Mastercard merger." The text uses the more conservative figure of "over $30 billion," and I couldn't find BVNK's own published number.
- Stellar's $55.6 billion payment volume: This comes from only one source; another report mentioned about $5.5 billion in stablecoin payment volume as of June, which differs by an order of magnitude, suggesting different statistical criteria.
- Background knowledge written without verifying each point: The AI interpretation includes details about BVNK's founders, funding rounds, Visa's investment, and Coinbase's acquisition discussions, as well as historical details about Stellar, Stripe, and Visa.