Fireblocks denied a report that Visa was in advanced negotiations to acquire the institutional crypto custody and stablecoin infrastructure company for around $2.5 billion. Axios reported that the companies were approaching an agreement, citing multiple sources. Fireblocks rejected the report hours later in comments to The Block on Thursday. Fireblocks said, "This is news to us, and not true at present time".
The reported transaction would have marked Visa's first acquisition in the stablecoin sector. The transaction would also have ranked among the largest crypto acquisitions, below Coinbase's $2.9 billion acquisition of Deribit in 2025. Naver Financial's pending acquisition of Dunamu, the parent company of Upbit, is valued at $10.3 billion.
The reported price would sharply undercut the $8 billion valuation Fireblocks reached in January 2022. Fireblocks raised $550 million through a Series E financing that month, at the venture investment cycle's peak. Michael Shaulov, Pavel Berengoltz and Idan Ofrat founded Fireblocks in 2018 after working in Israel's cybersecurity industry. Fireblocks provides infrastructure that banks, exchanges and financial technology companies use to store and transfer digital assets.
Fireblocks serves customers including BNY Mellon, Worldpay, Revolut and Galaxy. Fireblocks says the company has protected transfers worth trillions of dollars across more than 150 blockchains. Fireblocks supplies infrastructure for FIS's institutional bitcoin trading. Fireblocks also supports BNP Paribas's digital asset custody operations. Fireblocks is a founding member of the Botanix federation, a bitcoin sidechain project.
Established payment companies have spent 2026 acquiring or pursuing stablecoin and crypto infrastructure providers instead of developing comparable systems internally. Mastercard agreed in March to acquire BVNK for up to $1.8 billion after negotiations to acquire Zerohash collapsed. Mastercard completed the BVNK acquisition in August. Mastercard also obtained a New York BitLicense during that period. Zerohash is pursuing a US national trust bank charter.
Visa partnered with Zerohash in August to introduce stablecoin funding and payouts through Visa Direct. Visa said in September that stablecoin settlement volume had exceeded an annualized rate of $20 billion, more than 15 times the previous year's level. Visa and Mastercard joined more than 140 companies supporting Open USD. The dollar stablecoin is designed to distribute the economic benefits of a $300 billion market beyond Tether and Circle.
Fireblocks introduced a stablecoin payments network in September 2025 with more than 40 participants, including Circle, Bridge, Zerohash and Yellow Card. Fireblocks introduced acceptance tools for neobanks this year. Fireblocks also introduced a settlement suite targeting AI agents this year.
Fireblocks Denies $2.5 Billion Visa Acquisition Report
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Summary
Fireblocks denied a report in AI + crypto news that Visa was close to acquiring the firm for $2.5 billion. The denial followed an Axios story citing unnamed sources. Fireblocks said the claim is false. The deal, if real, would mark Visa’s first stablecoin sector acquisition. It would also rank as one of the largest crypto news deals, though smaller than Coinbase’s $2.9 billion buy of Deribit in 2025.
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