Mastercard Considers Investment in Blockchain Infrastructure Company Zerohash

The company changed its plans after zerohash chose to remain independent, and the acquisition talks collapsed, CoinDesk reported Tuesday (Jan. 20), citing unnamed sources.

The two firms are now discussing an investment, according to the report.

Mastercard did not comment in the CoinDesk article and did not immediately reply to PYMNTS’ request for comment.

Zerohash told CoinDesk that it is best positioned to innovate, build and deliver for customers by remaining independent.

“We are not entertaining an acquisition by Mastercard,” the company said, per the report. “We respect the Mastercard team and look forward to scaling commercial partnerships.”

It was reported in October that the companies were in late-stage talks on a deal that would see Mastercard acquire zerohash for $1.5 billion to $2 billion.

Reached by PYMNTS at the time, both companies declined to comment on that report.

Zerohash announced in September that it raised $104 million in a Series D-2 funding round to speed its product expansion and hire new talent.

The company said in a press release that it was seeing a surge in demand for enterprise-grade on-chain infrastructure that was triggered by a boom in consumer adoption and new regulatory clarity in key markets such as the United States and Europe.

“This raise, and the caliber of our investors and clients, is testament to the trust we’ve built,” zerohash founder and CEO Edward Woodford said in the release. “It further underscores the scale and the proven track record that we have developed since founding in 2017. Crypto, stablecoins and tokenization aren’t coming — it’s here — and zerohash is the engine behind the scenes.”

In November, zerohash received permission to offer regulated crypto-asset and stablecoin infrastructure services across the European Economic Area. This came in the form of zerohash europe gaining authorization under the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework from the Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets.

Meanwhile, Mastercard finalized a $2.65 billion acquisition of threat intelligence company Recorded Future in December 2024 and introduced a threat intelligence solution that includes that firm’s platform in October.