Fireblocks denial masks an 69% markdown
Fireblocks denies Visa talks at $2.5B, a price 69% below its 2022 peak valuation, as card networks race to buy stablecoin rails.
Fireblocks denied on Thursday that Visa is close to buying it for about $2.5 billion, hours after Axios reported the two sides were in late-stage talks. "This is news to us, and not true at present time," the company told The Block.
The number nobody's denying
Whether or not a deal is close, the price tag attached to the rumor is the real story. Fireblocks raised at an $8 billion valuation in January 2022. A $2.5 billion sale would mark a steep comedown for a company that still calls itself a leader in digital asset infrastructure.
- Fireblocks raised $550 million in January 2022 at an $8 billion valuation, per The Block.
- The reported Visa price of $2.5 billion is roughly 69% below that 2022 mark.
- It would rank behind Coinbase's $2.9 billion Deribit purchase and Naver Financial's pending $10.3 billion Dunamu deal.
- Mastercard closed its up-to-$1.8 billion BVNK acquisition in August after talks with Zerohash collapsed.
- Visa's own stablecoin settlement volume hit a $20 billion annualized run rate in September, over 15 times the year before.
Payment incumbents buying the plumbing
Most coverage will frame this as a he-said-she-said over a denied report. The valuation math underneath tells a sharper story about who's absorbing the 2022 crypto hangover.
Card networks spent 2026 shopping for stablecoin rails instead of building them. Mastercard bought BVNK. Visa partnered with Zerohash in August. Both joined the 140-company Open USD coalition aimed at the $300 billion stablecoin market.
Fireblocks sits in the middle of that land grab with real customers: BNY Mellon, Worldpay, Revolut, Galaxy. It powers FIS's institutional bitcoin trading and BNP Paribas's custody stack.
A buyer's market for custody infrastructure
A company with that customer list selling at a 69% discount to its last private mark says the acquirer, not the target, is setting terms. Visa doesn't need to overpay when the 2022 valuation cycle left private crypto infrastructure priced for a boom that stalled.
Fireblocks needs scale and distribution more than Visa needs Fireblocks specifically. That asymmetry is what produces a $2.5 billion number in the first place, denial or not.
The denial protects deal leverage. Fireblocks can't confirm a price mid-negotiation without weakening its own position at the table. A flat "not true at present time" buys room to keep talking while distancing the company from a number it may not love.
What confirms or kills this
The next few weeks should show whether this was a leak that spooked the parties or a trial balloon that popped on its own.
- Watch for an SEC or regulatory filing from Visa referencing a custody acquisition in Q4 2026.
- Watch whether Fireblocks announces a funding round or alternative buyer in the next 60 days, which would suggest it's shopping for a better price.
- Watch if Visa's stablecoin settlement run rate, last at $20 billion annualized, keeps climbing, which would explain why it needs Fireblocks regardless of price.