6 Stablecoins, 8 Chains: Mastercard Bets on a Unified Entry Rather Than a Single Winner

On June 3, Mastercard announced an expansion of its stablecoin settlement capabilities, initially integrating 6 stablecoins and 8 blockchains with participation from 5 institutions. Less than three months ago, the company also announced plans to acquire stablecoin infrastructure provider BVNK for up to $1.8 billion.

These two actions point to the same issue: How can banks and payment institutions avoid having to connect separately to each asset and each chain when settlement demands are dispersed across different stablecoins and blockchains?

Mastercard's approach is not to bet on a single winner but to build a unified settlement entry that handles the differences between various currencies and networks in the background.

In the short term, institutional stablecoin settlements will continue to coexist with multiple currencies and chains. What banks and payment institutions need is not more asset options, but a settlement entry that can unify connections to different stablecoins and blockchains. Mastercard's planned acquisition of BVNK is aimed at enhancing its ability to connect bank accounts, stablecoins, and multiple blockchains.

1. Settlement Volume is Growing, and Supported Chains are Increasing

Mastercard's initial offerings support USDC, PYUSD, USDG, USDP, RLUSD, and SoFiUSD, covering Arbitrum, Base, Canton, Ethereum, Polygon, Solana, Tempo, and XRPL. ARQ, CBW Bank, Cross River, Lead Bank, and Nuvei are expected to be among the first participating institutions.

This range of integration indicates that institutional stablecoin settlements have not yet concentrated on a single stablecoin or blockchain.

For Mastercard, the focus is not merely on increasing support options but on connecting multiple stablecoins and blockchains to the same settlement service. Banks and payment institutions only need to connect once to handle multi-currency and multi-chain settlements without having to connect to different assets and networks one by one.

Source: Mastercard Official Announcement

Visa's data shows a similar trend. By the end of November 2025, its annualized stablecoin settlement scale exceeded $3.5 billion; by the end of April 2026, this figure rose to $7 billion, doubling in five months. During the same period, the number of blockchains supported by Visa increased from 4 to 9.

Source: Visa Official Announcement

As the settlement scale expands, Visa has not reduced the number of supported blockchains; instead, it continues to increase its coverage. This indicates that, at least for now, institutional settlements still require connections to multiple chains. Multi-chain connections and management have become part of daily operations.

2. Fragmentation Increases Long-term Operational Costs

For institutions, each additional blockchain requires new wallets and custody solutions, preparation of fee assets, setting transaction confirmation rules, and establishing exception handling processes.

Each new stablecoin also necessitates a reevaluation of the issuer, redemption arrangements, partner banks, and liquidity sources. These differences must also be incorporated into sanction screening, internal reconciliation, auditing, and risk control systems. Therefore, costs arise not only from on-chain transfers themselves but also from the long-term maintenance of multiple connections, rules, and operational processes.

The 6 stablecoins and 8 blockchains announced by Mastercard do not imply that all combinations of currencies and blockchains will be opened simultaneously. However, the more assets and networks supported, the more complex the connections, rules, and operational processes that institutions need to maintain. By having service providers handle these differences centrally, institutions only need to connect once to complete multi-currency and multi-chain settlements.

3. BVNK Enhances Mastercard's On-chain Connection Capabilities

BVNK itself does not issue stablecoins.

It integrates fiat currency exchange, stablecoin payments, wallets, liquidity, and compliance services within the same infrastructure. BVNK disclosed that its platform currently processes approximately $30 billion in transactions annually and supports clients in over 130 countries and regions in sending and receiving funds.

BVNK is responsible for connecting bank accounts, stablecoins, and multiple blockchains; Mastercard connects issuing banks, acquiring institutions, payment networks, and global fiat channels. Together, Mastercard can integrate on-chain funds into existing institutional payment and settlement systems.

According to BVNK, once the acquisition is complete, it will provide stablecoin capabilities to Mastercard's payment endpoints, including 24/7 stablecoin settlements for merchants and acquiring institutions, as well as accepting stablecoin payments through the Mastercard payment gateway. This way, stablecoin payments can be integrated into the existing daily settlement processes of institutions.

Mastercard plans to acquire BVNK for up to $1.8 billion, with $300 million being contingent consideration. The acquisition includes not only the technology systems but also the licenses, bank connections, customer relationships, and operational processes that BVNK has already established. Compared to building these systems from scratch in different markets and blockchains, acquisition can significantly shorten the time to market.

4. Potential Revenue Sources from a Unified Entry

Mastercard has not yet disclosed the fee structure for stablecoin settlements, so it is currently impossible to accurately estimate the revenue from this business. However, a unified entry can first reduce the integration costs for institutions.

Banks and payment institutions only need to connect to Mastercard to handle multiple stablecoins and blockchains without having to complete technical adaptations separately.

As more transactions are completed through the same interface, Mastercard can also provide fiat deposit and withdrawal, currency exchange, risk control, reconciliation, and operational support, which may also become additional revenue sources.

Mastercard does not need to bet on a specific stablecoin or blockchain in advance. As long as the market continues to maintain a coexistence of multiple currencies and chains, institutions will need a unified settlement entry. At this stage, Mastercard's more important task is to first enter the stablecoin settlement processes of banks and payment institutions, and then to generate revenue as transaction volumes expand.

Conclusion: Mastercard is Competing for Settlement Interfaces

Mastercard has expanded its support to 6 stablecoins and 8 blockchains while planning to acquire BVNK. The commonality of these two actions is that they do not bet on a specific stablecoin or blockchain but aim to become the primary access channel for institutions using stablecoin settlements.

How much revenue this business can ultimately generate still depends on whether the scale of stablecoin settlements can continue to expand. However, as long as banks and payment institutions are unwilling to maintain multiple on-chain systems themselves, they will need external service providers to handle integration, reconciliation, and operations.

What Mastercard is striving for is to become the unified settlement interface that these institutions will use in the long term.

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