Mastercard and BVNK launched a platform on Oct. 15 that lets stablecoin balances be spent through cards issued in more than 130 countries. The reach figures are large, and only transaction volume will show whether the BVNK price made sense.
Perspective Coverage
6 publishers
- Builder
- Builder 31%
- Operator
- Operator 32%
- Investor
- Investor 37%
Reality
- Evidence50
- Adoption15
- Hype gap+35
- Incentives65
- Confidence62
Mastercard spreads its cross-border stablecoin bet across OUSD, USDC and BVNK
Mastercard CEO Michael Miebach said Oct. 9 that cross-border payments are stablecoins' strongest use, citing OUSD, a coin Visa and Stripe also back. His biggest stablecoin deal, up to $1.8 billion for BVNK per Crypto Briefing, buys tools to hold and convert whichever coin businesses pick.
Reality
- Evidence55
- Adoption25
- Hype gap+20
- Incentives70
- Confidence55
Visa and Mastercard co-own a stablecoin that hands most of its reserve income to partners
Visa and Mastercard took equal stakes with Coinbase, Stripe and Shopify in OUSD, a stablecoin the five founders back with over $1 billion. Its zero fees cover minting and redemption only, and the networks also back rival stablecoins, so the stake is one bet among several.
Reality
- Evidence40
- Adoption30
- Hype gap+20
- Incentives60
- Confidence35
Open USD launched with Stripe distribution and $468 million of backed supply, about 0.15% of a dollar-stablecoin market led by USDT and USDC. Its share grows only if Stripe customers move payments and treasury balances into it beyond the liquidity its founders seeded.
Perspective Coverage
9 publishers
- Builder
- Builder 26%
- Operator
- Operator 35%
- Investor
- Investor 39%
Reality
- Evidence58
- Adoption18
- Hype gap+40
- Incentives78
- Confidence60
Stripe-owned Bridge is issuing the OUSD stablecoin on four blockchains, with reserves held at BlackRock, Lead Bank and BNY. Open Standard has not said how much has been issued, so its list of more than 200 partner businesses is the only size figure on record.
Reality
- Evidence55
- Adoption30
- Hype gap+30
- Incentives75
- Confidence60
OUSD pays its partners the reserve income that stablecoin issuers usually keep
Open Standard's OUSD stablecoin launched Sept. 30 with over $1 billion from Coinbase, Mastercard, Shopify, Stripe and Visa. Because partners collect most of the reserve yield, the payment firms that distribute stablecoins now have a revenue reason to push this one.
Reality
- Evidence42
- Adoption30
- Hype gap+20
- Incentives80
- Confidence45
Marqeta adds Mastercard-owned BVNK to a card stack that already had Zero Hash
BVNK processed more than $30 billion of stablecoin transactions last year and now plugs into Marqeta's issuing platform, where the card rails stay as they are and the currency conversion happens out of the cardholder's sight.
Reality
- Evidence45
- Adoption30
- Hype gap+25
- Incentives72
- Confidence45
The UK fintech hole is in the middle: late-stage down 45%, seed nearly doubled
Late-stage funding fell 45% to $830mn while seed cash almost doubled. For a company past proof-of-concept, that is a plan for a buyer or a longer runway, not a growth round.
Reality
- Evidence52
- Adoption61
- Hype gap+14
- Incentives44
- Confidence54