Almost one year after the fintech giant Stripe struck a $1.1 billion deal to acquire the stablecoin startup Bridge, two other big corporate players want to scoop up a stablecoin firm of their own. The U.S. crypto exchange Coinbase and the payments giant Mastercard have each held advanced acquisition talks to buy London-based BVNK, according to six sources familiar with the dealings, who asked for anonymity to talk about confidential business discussions.
The terms and winning bidder haven’t been finalized, but the sale price is in the range of $1.5 billion to $2.5 billion, according to some of the sources. The talks may not result in a final deal, but at present Coinbase appears to have the inside track over Mastercard, three of the sources told Fortune.
