Fireblocks Denies Report of $2.5 Billion Visa Takeover Talks
Bitcoin Magazine Fireblocks Denies Report of $2.5 Billion Visa Takeover Talks Fireblocks has denied an Axios report that Visa is in late-stage talks to acquire the crypto custody firm for about $2.5...
Fireblocks has denied a report that Visa is in late-stage talks to buy the institutional crypto custody and stablecoin infrastructure firm for around $2.5 billion.
“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,” the company told The Block on Thursday.
The denial came hours after Axios reported, citing multiple sources, that the two sides were close to a deal. It would have been Visa’s first acquisition in the stablecoin sector and one of the largest in crypto’s history, behind Coinbase’s $2.9 billion purchase of Deribit in 2025 and Naver Financial’s pending $10.3 billion deal for Upbit parent Dunamu.
The reported price would have been a steep markdown from the $8 billion valuation Fireblocks commanded in January 2022, when it raised $550 million in a Series E round at the peak of the venture cycle. Founded in 2018 by Michael Shaulov, Pavel Berengoltz and Idan Ofrat, three veterans of the Israeli cybersecurity scene, the company sells the plumbing that banks, exchanges and fintechs use to hold and move digital assets.
Its customers include BNY Mellon, Worldpay, Revolut and Galaxy, and it says it has secured trillions of dollars in transfers across more than 150 blockchains.
Fireblocks powers FIS’s institutional bitcoin trading, underpins BNP Paribas’s digital asset custody, and sits among the founding members of the Botanix federation, a bitcoin sidechain project.
Whatever the status of the talks, the report landed on fertile ground. Payment incumbents spent 2026 buying or courting the companies that handle stablecoin and crypto rails rather than building them from scratch.
Mastercard agreed in March to buy BVNK for up to $1.8 billion, after takeover talks with Zerohash fell through, closed that deal in August and secured a New York BitLicense along the way.
Visa partnered with Zerohash in August to add stablecoin funding and payouts to Visa Direct, and in September said its stablecoin settlement volume had passed a $20 billion annualized run rate, more than 15 times the prior year’s level.
Both card networks joined a coalition of more than 140 companies behind Open USD, a dollar stablecoin designed to spread the economics of a $300 billion market beyond Tether and Circle.
Fireblocks launched its own stablecoin payments network in September 2025 with over 40 participants, including Circle, Bridge, Zerohash and Yellow Card, and this year rolled out acceptance tools for neobanks and a settlement suite aimed at AI agents.
Asanat Analysis — Why it matters
Fireblocks' denial of Visa acquisition talks signals either a genuine rebuff of overtures or damage control around valuation expectations. The $2.5B figure—if accurate—would represent a significant markdown from Fireblocks' reported $8B valuation at its last funding round (2022), reflecting broader contraction in institutional crypto infrastructure valuations. This suggests either softening demand for custody solutions among traditional finance acquirers, or Fireblocks' negotiating position weakening amid market headwinds.
A Visa acquisition would have been a major institutional validation of enterprise crypto infrastructure, similar to Fidelity's custody buildout or Nasdaq's blockchain services expansion. The fact that such talks reportedly reached 'late-stage' before apparent collapse indicates traditional finance remains cautious about full crypto service integration despite stated blockchain commitments. For crypto infrastructure builders, it underscores that institutional adoption narratives don't automatically translate to M&A premiums or exit multiples from legacy finance firms.
The timing also matters: late October 2026 follows a crypto market uptick, suggesting Fireblocks may have rejected terms opportunistically or that Visa reconsidered given competitive dynamics with other custody providers (Coinbase, Kraken, Copper). Fireblocks' denial lacks detail on whether discussions occurred, which is notable for managing both market perceptions and investor confidence.