PANews reported on October 30th that, according to Fortune magazine, sources revealed that payment giant Mastercard has entered late-stage negotiations to acquire cryptocurrency and stablecoin infrastructure startup Zerohash for between $1.5 billion and $2 billion. The deal could still fall through, but if completed, it would be Mastercard's largest investment in the stablecoin sector to date.

Prior to this potential acquisition, Mastercard had held talks with stablecoin startup BVNK. Sources say that the Mastercard payment network had late-stage negotiations with Coinbase to acquire the startup for approximately $2 billion, and Coinbase appears to have won the bidding war, securing an exclusive agreement with the company, meaning BVNK cannot accept offers from other bidders.