The world has been due for a unified financial layer and this has fueled stablecoins adoption.
In August, I said in an article that Bridge could go on to be the best acquisition over the next 5-10 years.
My understanding of the situation with stablecoins has been that it will completely eat up global money flow and when a company like Stripe, got its hands on a renowned stablecoin infrastructure firm like Bridge, currently being used my multiple prominent crypto-native and TradFi players, I easily concluded that this was a smart acquisition that could really put Stripe ahead over the next decade.
Seeing how companies are actively fighting to acquire similar firms, I think that my assessment could go on to be accurate and my prediction might just play out.
Credit card giant Mastercard is reportedly in advanced discussions to acquire stablecoin infrastructure firm Zerohash for between $1.5 billion and $2 billion, according to Fortune, which cited five unnamed sources with knowledge of the deal.
The potential acquisition is the second this month that New York-based Mastercard is reportedly pursuing as it looks to expand its presence in the stablecoin space, along with other high-profile financial services firms.
Mastercard and Coinbase each held late-stage talks with BVNK about acquiring the stablecoin startup for approximately $2 billion, Fortune also reported in early October.
Either deal would outpace the $1.1 billion that payments processor Stripe paid a year ago to acquire another stablecoin startup, Bridge. – Decrypt.co report
The $1.8 quadrillion market, all on-chain
Most people don't understand the hype behind stablecoins and digital payments on blockchains, so I'll pull out some stats to try to paint a picture.
Global digital payment revenue is projected to exceed $11.5 trillion in 2025, marking a growth of 15% compared to 2024.
This is more money than China's entire stock market!
The average value of a retail cross-border transaction is estimated to be in the $600–$720 range in 2025, varying by sector, with higher averages seen in B2B payments.
What this means is that when you're a company serving a global market, you're playing in a field that puts you in position to earn as much as $720 per transaction.
By the way, as much as $1.8 quadrillion in payments value is processed annually, across all payments channels.
Now to the fun parts
Blockchain cut transaction times by up to 88%, enabling cross-border settlements in under 3 minutes in 2025.
Blockchain-based payments cut remittance costs by 40–80%, enabling faster, cheaper global money transfers.
What all of these stats from Coinlaw tells us is that companies like Mastercard are fighting for a market that moves trillions monthly and produces also trillions in revenue.
When that market all comes on-chain, what happens is that those numbers will grow significantly because the effects of low-cost and high-speed transactions is that people (an eventually AI) will move money more frequently.
The numbers will be be quite impressive, people won't believe it.
As a result, stablecoin infrastructure firms will be highly valuable technology-solutions firms in a future where money runs almost entirely on-chain.