Stablecoin startup BVNK pursues funding after major deal Stripe

Stablecoin startup BVNK has reportedly initiated private talks with investors to raise $50 million in a new funding round. The news follows Stripe’s October announcement of the acquisition of the stablecoin startup Bridge.

Based on information from sources familiar with the development, the crypto startup BVNK is negotiating with investors to complete a new funding round. The startup is reportedly looking to raise $50 million in the funding round.

BVNK enters $50 million funding round

The company has not made an official statement about the funding round. However, insider sources have confirmed to Bloomberg News that the talks are ongoing and will remain private, away from the public domain. According to the sources, the size and valuation of the crypto startup will change during the early negotiation stages. 

The news comes after global tech company Stripe announced a $1.1 billion deal to acquire another stablecoin startup called Bridge. The billion-dollar acquisition has ignited a wave of excitement among investors looking into stablecoin companies. The acquisition may have also fueled strong investor confidence in BVNK. 

Bridge held a seed round in 2022 and another funding round in August 2024. The recent funding round saw investment from Sequoia, Coinbase, and Ribbit Capital. After the funding round, an insider revealed that Bridge was valued at $350 million.

The stablecoin ecosystem attracts institutional attention

Stablecoins are gaining momentum in the decentralized finance ecosystem and have become a honeypot for major financial institutions globally. Jesse Pollak, head of Base and Coinbase Wallet at the Coinbase crypto exchange, announced on November 13 that the Utopia Labs team will join Base. 

According to the executive, he expects the alliance to enhance the exchange’s plans for its Coinbase Wallet. 

“The Utopia team has been on the ground floor building onchain payments products for years. We’re pumped for them to join us to accelerate our goal of bringing low-cost, fast, and global payments to everyone around the world.”

Jesse Pollak

Financial companies like Visa, Paypal, and SWIFT have begun supporting stablecoins as global regulators push for regulatory oversight on the developing stablecoin infrastructure.

Paypal made significant strides in expanding its use cases in the crypto sector by launching PYUSD. Worldwide institution payment platform SWIFT also recently announced that it will allow banks to conduct tests on tokenized transactions through its messaging network beginning next year.

Visa unveils a tokenized asset platform for banking institutions

Visa marked a major milestone in October after unveiling the Visa Tokenized Asset Platform (VTAP) for banking institutions to issue tokens backed by fiat currencies. The platform leverages emerging trends such as blockchain and smart contracts to allow banks to transact stablecoins.

Stablecoin adoption has been growing significantly. According to data from Squads Protocol, stablecoin transaction volume exceeded 2.3 trillion. The figure represents 20% of Visa’s payment volume, 25% of Mastercard’s volume, and is twice the volume of Stripe. 

According to data from Coingecko, stablecoins cumulatively hold a market cap of $185 billion, equivalent to 7.7% of the entire crypto market cap. The data also shows that Tether’s USDT dominates the stablecoin ecosystem accounting for more than 70% of volume, followed by Circle’s USDC at 20%.