On October 22, 2026, Axios reported that Visa (NYSE: V) was in late-stage talks to acquire the privately owned digital-asset infrastructure firm Fireblocks for $2.5 billion. Fireblocks promptly denied the report, stating that the claims were “not true at present time,” while Visa declined to comment.
Let Us Explain.
If the rumors had been accurate, the deal would have made strategic sense given the companies’ existing relationship. Fireblocks already supplies the infrastructure underlying many of Visa’s stablecoin-linked card programs and has supported Visa’s USDC settlement pilots. An acquisition would have given Visa direct ownership of one of the principal institutional platforms used to manage custody, movement, and settlement of cryptocurrencies and stablecoins, shifting the payments network from relying on a partner to controlling the underlying technology layer. Strategically, this would have strengthened Visa’s position in blockchain-based payments and settlement relative to competitors, including Mastercard, which has pursued its own stablecoin-related acquisitions and initiatives. At $2.5 billion, the transaction would have ranked among the larger acquisitions in crypto history, though it would still have been modest relative to Visa’s overall scale and payment volumes.
More About Fireblocks.
Fireblocks is an institutional-grade digital-asset infrastructure company that provides the secure technology layer used by banks, exchanges, fintechs, and payment providers to hold, move, issue, and manage cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, and tokenized assets. Its main offerings include custody and treasury management across hot, warm, and cold wallet configurations; wallets-as-a-service and embedded wallets for white-label applications; stablecoin payments and settlement infrastructure with built-in compliance features; tokenization tools for issuing and managing tokenized securities and other assets; and the Fireblocks Network for direct transfers between institutions and counterparties. The company also operates a separate regulated entity, Fireblocks Trust Company, a New York limited-purpose trust authorized to provide qualified custody services.
Architecture.
Technically, Fireblocks does not function as a traditional custodian that takes ownership of client funds. Instead, it operates as a technology platform built on multi-party computation (MPC) wallet technology. Private keys are split into shares that are distributed across separate secure environments and are never assembled in one place; a transaction can be authorized only when a required threshold of those shares cooperate. This is paired with policy engines that define who can move which assets, in what amounts, and to which destinations. Clients therefore retain control of their assets while Fireblocks supplies the underlying security infrastructure, APIs, and operational tools.
Background.
Founded in 2018 by Michael Shaulov (CEO), Idan Ofrat, and Pavel Berengoltz—all of whom have cybersecurity backgrounds—and headquartered in New York, Fireblocks serves more than 2,000 institutions. These include major banks such as BNY Mellon, BNP Paribas, and ABN AMRO, fintechs such as Revolut and Worldpay, and numerous crypto-native firms. The platform supports well over 100 blockchains and has processed trillions of dollars in cumulative digital-asset transfers.
Show Me the Money.
Fireblocks has raised $1.04 billion in total funding. Its last priced round was a $550 million Series E in January 2022 that valued the company at $8 billion. It has also expanded through acquisitions, including Dynamic (wallet infrastructure) and TRES Finance (digital-asset accounting and reporting). Fireblocks provides much of the secure operational plumbing that traditional financial institutions and large fintechs rely on when they want to work with digital assets without building the security and infrastructure themselves. A $2.5 billion acquisition price would have represented a steep discount to the company’s last disclosed valuation.
Brief Version of the Difference Between Visa’s and Mastercard’s Approach to Crypto.
Visa has scaled its crypto capabilities primarily by embedding stablecoins into its existing rails while relying on external partners for specialized infrastructure. It uses providers such as Fireblocks for custody and movement of digital assets in many of its stablecoin-linked card programs and settlement pilots, and it has remained neutral across different stablecoin issuers and blockchains. This approach has produced rapid volume growth: by late October 2026, Visa’s annualized stablecoin settlement run rate had surpassed $25 billion, a tenfold increase year-over-year, spanning five stablecoins across ten blockchains, alongside more than 225 stablecoin-linked card programs.
On the other hand, Mastercard has prioritized owning the orchestration layer rather than depending on external partners. In August 2026 it completed its acquisition of the stablecoin infrastructure firm BVNK for up to $1.8 billion. That deal enabled the launch of the Mastercard Global Money Platform, which provides banks, fintechs, and enterprises with a single integration for multi-currency accounts that hold both fiat and stablecoins, real-time conversion between them, stablecoin-linked cards, and local bank payouts.
