Fireblocks has denied a report that Visa was in late-stage negotiations to acquire the crypto infrastructure company for approximately $2.5 billion. The denial came within hours of an Axios report on Thursday, leaving conflicting accounts of a potential deal.
Axios journalist Lucinda Shen reported that Visa was negotiating the acquisition. Fireblocks told Coindesk’s Ian Allison that it was aware of the speculation. “We are aware of the rumors about a possible acquisition of Fireblocks by Visa. This is news to us, and not true at present time,” a company spokesperson stated. Visa declined to comment on rumors or speculation.
Allison separately reported that acquisition chatter had circulated for several weeks, with Coinbase also mentioned as a possible interested buyer.
Valuation Gap
Founded in 2018, Fireblocks provides crypto custody, wallet management, and transaction infrastructure to banks, exchanges, and financial institutions. Its technology uses multi-party computation to distribute cryptographic key management across secure environments, reducing reliance on any single point of compromise.
The company raised $550 million in January 2022 at an $8 billion valuation. A $2.5 billion sale would represent a 68.75% decline from that benchmark, despite Fireblocks’ expansion into stablecoin payments and institutional settlement services.
Stablecoin Ambitions
Visa has steadily expanded its stablecoin operations, including USDC settlement, cross-border payouts, and stablecoin-linked payment cards. Owning Fireblocks would potentially bring critical wallet, custody, and transfer infrastructure directly inside Visa’s operations, reducing dependence on external technology providers.
The reported negotiations also follow Mastercard’s $1.8 billion deal to acquire stablecoin infrastructure provider BVNK earlier this year.
For now, the central contradiction remains unresolved: anonymous sources told Axios’ Shen that advanced negotiations were underway, while the company supposedly being purchased says those negotiations aren’t happening.
