Key Takeaways
- On Thursday, Axios reported Visa was negotiating a $2.5 billion acquisition of Fireblocks.
- Fireblocks denied the acquisition rumors, while Visa declined to comment.
- Fireblocks’ rumored purchase price sits nearly 69% below its $8 billion valuation in 2022.
Visa’s Reported $2.5B Fireblocks Deal Meets Swift Denial
Visa reportedly wants to buy Fireblocks for $2.5 billion, nearly $5.5 billion below the crypto company’s peak valuation. But there’s a problem: Fireblocks says the acquisition story isn’t true.
Axios reported Thursday that the payments giant was in late-stage negotiations to acquire the digital asset custody specialist. Within hours, Fireblocks publicly rejected the claim, leaving one of the year’s potentially largest crypto acquisitions caught between unnamed sources and an unusually direct corporate denial.
Fireblocks Pushes Back Against Acquisition Claims
On the same day as the Axios report by journalist Lucinda Shen, Fireblocks told Coindesk’s Ian Allison that it was aware of the speculation surrounding Visa’s reported interest.
“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.
The payments giant 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.
An $8 Billion Company With a $2.5 Billion Price Tag?
Founded in 2018, the digital asset firm 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.
Visa’s Stablecoin Ambitions Add Another Twist
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.
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