Coinbase Sets Sights on BVNK in $2 Billion Stablecoin Bet

Stablecoin Expansion

According to Bitedge’s analysts, Coinbase’s bid for BVNK is driven by its ambition to expand stablecoin use cases beyond speculative trading. BVNK brings turnkey tools for merchants, fintechs, and banks to issue, hold, accept, or spend stablecoins globally.

With regulatory clarity improving in markets like the UK and Hong Kong, demand for compliant stablecoin rails has surged, a trend Coinbase is determined to capitalize on.

This isn’t Coinbase’s first stablecoin move in 2025.

In June, it acquired Cross River Digital for $650 million, bolstering its access to U.S. banking APIs and stablecoin-friendly settlement networks. The exchange also announced deeper USDC integration into Shopify, Fireblocks, and Mercado Pago. But the BVNK deal represents its first attempt to control a business that directly services enterprise stablecoin payments at scale.

What BVNK Brings to the Table

BVNK launched in 2021 and now supports over 100 digital assets with a regulatory footprint spanning the UK, Europe, and South Africa. Its cloud-native platform processes more than $3 billion in annualized volume across e-commerce, payroll, and cross-border remittances. Clients include challenger banks, neobroker apps, and tokenized funds.

Critically, BVNK offers a stablecoin treasury engine that can auto-mint and burn multiple tokens across chains, including USDC, PYUSD, and Euro-denominated stablecoins. For Coinbase, this could allow deeper enterprise penetration and quicker response to stablecoin competition from the likes of PayPal and Stripe.

If completed, the deal would also give Coinbase a future-proof hedge. With governments exploring central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), BVNK’s neutral tech stack could serve either private or public token rails, important optionality in a fast-shifting regulatory era.

2025: A Year of Expansion for Coinbase

The BVNK bid caps an aggressive 2025 expansion push for Coinbase. The company has already closed three acquisitions this year, including:

• Cross River Digital – US-based fintech API provider ($650 million)
• Krypton Custody – Australian institutional crypto custodian (undisclosed sum)
• TokComply – European on-chain identity verification startup (€220 million)

Combined, these moves underscore a pivot from pure retail trading into infrastructure, compliance, and payments. Coinbase now supports over 310 million user accounts globally and has added 12 new jurisdictions to its services map since January.

During its Q3 earnings call, CEO Brian Armstrong stated that the company is on track to achieve positive net income for the year, despite spending $1.5 billion on mergers and acquisitions.

So far in 2025, Coinbase stock has jumped over 40%, outpacing peers such as Kraken and Robinhood Crypto, who’ve taken a more cautious growth path amid spot ETF inflows and uncertain U.S. regulatory timelines.

Paying Up for Growth

The BVNK price tag, reportedly double its most recent private valuation, has raised some eyebrows. Yet analysts point out that Coinbase has over $5.3 billion in cash and cash equivalents as of October, making it one of the most liquid balance sheets in U.S. fintech.

“Stablecoins could be a $9 trillion industry by 2030, so this is Coinbase front-running that curve,” said one emerging tech analyst at Maplewood Capital. “Ownership of infrastructure, not just the tokens, is how they stay relevant beyond ETFs and retail fees.”

BVNK’s active partnerships with Mastercard, Spartan Capital, and Revolut also align with Coinbase’s strategy of embedding crypto in mainstream payment flows instead of waiting for Web3-native adoption alone.

The Road Ahead

BVNK’s board will reportedly vote on the sale by late November, with Coinbase eyeing an early Q1 2026 closing, pending regulatory approval in the EU and the U.S. If successful, the acquisition could mark a turning point for the exchange, from a broker of digital assets into a full-stack financial network spanning currencies, chains, and compliance layers.

For now, all eyes are on Armstrong’s growing bet: that stablecoin infrastructure will define the next phase of Web3 adoption, and that Coinbase can lead without waiting for Washington.