BVNK
BVNK is a payment infrastructure company from London that lets businesses send, receive, hold and convert money in stablecoins and in traditional currencies such as euros, pounds and dollars. Payment providers, payroll platforms and fintechs connect to BVNK through one API and offer these payments to their own customers under their own brand.
A merchant can accept a stablecoin payment and receive euros, and a business can fund a payout in dollars that reaches the recipient as a stablecoin. BVNK holds e-money licenses in the UK and Malta, a MiCA license for crypto-asset services in the EU and money transmitter licenses in US states. Mastercard completed its acquisition of BVNK on 3 August 2026.
Pay-ins, payouts and on and off ramps
BVNK groups its products by what the money does: send, receive, store, convert and spend. For pay-ins, a merchant adds stablecoins as a payment option at checkout, the customer pays in a stablecoin, and the merchant receives euros, pounds or dollars. For payouts, a business funds the transfer in EUR, GBP or USD, and BVNK sends stablecoin payments worldwide to contractors, sellers or creators.
Between these two directions sit the on and off ramps that turn bank money into stablecoins and back. TransferMate, a provider of embedded B2B payments, chose BVNK in June 2026 for stablecoin on and off ramps and embedded wallets, for example for tuition fees that students abroad pay to universities. BVNK also offers virtual accounts in USD, EUR and GBP and an on-ramp that converts bank money into stablecoins.
Payment providers and platforms that use BVNK
BVNK sells to businesses that process at least $500,000 in payments a month and have six months of trading history. Worldpay announced in May 2025 that its clients in the US and Europe can pay out in stablecoins to more than 180 markets through BVNK, using their existing Worldpay payouts integration. Corpay, a corporate payments company with more than 800,000 clients, added stablecoin wallets from BVNK in May 2026, so that its clients see stablecoin balances next to their fiat balances.
The card issuing platform Marqeta partnered with BVNK in September 2026 so that cards from its customers can spend stablecoin balances wherever cards are accepted. In the same announcement, BVNK reported more than $39 billion in annualized payment volume, and it names Deel and Flywire among its customers. Xapo Bank receives stablecoin deposits from its members through BVNK and credits them as dollars to their USD accounts.
Licenses: MiCA in Malta, e-money in the UK and the EU
BVNK serves clients in the European Economic Area through System Pay Services (Malta) Limited, which the Malta Financial Services Authority authorized as a crypto-asset service provider under MiCA on 13 February 2026. The interim MiCA register of ESMA lists custody, exchange for funds, exchange between crypto-assets, order execution and transfer services for the company, which may offer them in 29 EEA countries. The same Maltese company is also an electronic money institution supervised by the MFSA.
In the UK, System Pay Services Ltd is an electronic money institution authorized by the Financial Conduct Authority under reference number 901057. In the US, System Pay Services (US), Inc. is registered with FinCEN as a money services business and holds state money transmitter licenses under NMLS ID 2531294. For euro payments, BVNK has direct access to SEPA as a technical participant in the CENTROlink system of the Bank of Lithuania, which carries SEPA credit transfers and instant euro payments around the clock.
Acquisition by Mastercard
Mastercard announced on 17 March 2026 that it would acquire BVNK for up to $1.8 billion, including $300 million in contingent payments. Mastercard completed the acquisition on 3 August 2026, and BVNK told its customers on the same day that they keep the same teams, products and integrations and need to take no action.
On 15 October 2026, Mastercard and BVNK launched the Mastercard Global Money Platform, which combines accounts for fiat and stablecoin balances, conversion between them, stablecoin-linked cards and local bank payouts through Mastercard Move. Nuvei, Marqeta, Ontop, Bolt Group and Almond FinTech are among the first companies to integrate it, and support for agentic commerce and tokenized deposits is planned for later.
Upcoming payments events in Europe
Who founded BVNK?
Jesse Hemson-Struthers, Chris Harmse and Donald Jackson founded BVNK, which launched in October 2021 with its registered office in London. Jesse Hemson-Struthers is chief executive officer, Chris Harmse is chief business officer, and Donald Jackson is chief technology officer of the company.
Is BVNK a licensed bank?
No, BVNK holds e-money, crypto-asset and money transmitter licenses but no banking license, and it safeguards the e-money funds of its customers. In the US, BVNK names two partner banks: Lead Bank, a state-chartered bank in Missouri, and Cross River Bank, a state-chartered bank in New Jersey.
Stablecoin Utility Report: what holders want
For the Stablecoin Utility Report 2026, BVNK and YouGov surveyed more than 4,600 stablecoin holders in 15 countries about how they use their stablecoins. In the survey, 77 percent said they would open a stablecoin wallet if their bank or fintech app offered one, and 71 percent said they were likely to spend stablecoins with a card.
API and developer documentation
Businesses connect to BVNK through one API, and the developer documentation covers API keys, wallets, customers, payouts, incoming payments, on-ramp conversion and webhooks. An integration is built and tested in a sandbox environment with its own portal before it moves to production.
Stablecoin payments and payment providers
BVNK and Finance Loop
Finance Loop covers stablecoin payments, payouts and the licensing of crypto-asset services in its Payments & Digital Money track. Finance Loop and Venturebloxx published the report Stablecoins: The Operating Layer for Global B2B Payments, which covers stablecoins in cross-border B2B payments and treasury, the field in which BVNK works.
Finance Loop is a professional network and has the goal of driving the institutional use of emerging technologies in finance, such as AI, digital payments, cloud and blockchain solutions. Finance Loop helps its members build skills and personal networks in these fields: Investment & Digital Assets, Payments & Digital Money, Digital Infrastructure & Sovereignty, and Risk & Compliance.