Mastercard acquires BVNK for $1.8 billion; Zerohash seeks additional funding at a higher valuation; JPMorgan points to ETH's structural lag.

According to ChainCatcher and BBX data, traditional payment institutions' crypto infrastructure strategies diverged yesterday, with clear differences in their views on the ETH and altcoin sectors. Key developments include: Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE: $MA) signed an agreement on March 17 to acquire UK stablecoin infrastructure company BVNK for up to $1.8 billion (including $300 million in performance-based payments). This directly led Mastercard to abandon its previously planned strategic investment in Zerohash (privately held). According to a CoinDesk report on May 19, Mastercard withdrew from negotiations with Zerohash after acquiring BVNK. Zerohash is currently seeking to launch a new funding round with a valuation of over $1.5 billion (higher than the $1 billion valuation established during its $104 million D-2 funding round in September 2025). Mastercard's strategic logic for acquiring BVNK lies in BVNK's stablecoin payment infrastructure covering more than 130 countries and its portfolio of multi-country payment licenses that are difficult to replicate quickly. Mastercard's Chief Product Officer, Jorn Lambert, stated that the goal is to integrate stablecoins into the core Mastercard Move cross-border payment network, rather than using them as a peripheral experiment. JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: $JPM) analysts, citing a CoinDesk report on May 19, released a new research report stating that Ethereum and the broader altcoin sector will continue to lag behind Bitcoin in the current market environment. The core reasons are three structural weaknesses: weak network activity, stagnant growth in the DeFi ecosystem (Solana TVL has fallen from its 2025 peak of $13.1 billion to approximately $5.5 billion), and limited real-world adoption scenarios. The analysts believe that for the altcoin sector to catch up with Bitcoin's performance, a "significant surge in network activity" is needed, a condition that currently lacks a visible short-term catalyst.