Zerohash is reportedly in talks to raise $250 million at a $1.5 billion valuation, according to reporting from CoinDesk. The report said terms are not final and could still change, and it framed the raise as coming after the company stepped away from acquisition discussions with Mastercard.
That acquisition thread has been in the background since late 2025, when Reuters reported Mastercard was in late-stage talks to buy Zerohash for roughly $1.5 billion to $2 billion, citing a Fortune report.
Crypto markets often focus on tokens, but the bigger long-term story is who is building the rails that let mainstream platforms offer crypto and stablecoin services.
Zerohash positions itself as a B2B operating layer for “digital money,” offering crypto and stablecoin infrastructure to banks, brokerages, and fintechs through APIs, as described on its platform overview and product pages like Buy & Sell. A large round in this category typically signals one of two things.
First, enterprise demand is expanding. It is harder to justify a $250M raise unless there is a growing pipeline of embedded-crypto launches, stablecoin settlement products, or tokenization-related workloads.
Second, regulatory posture is becoming a differentiator. Infrastructure firms selling to financial institutions are increasingly valued on compliance reach and licensing, not only on technical integration speed.
The raise story is tightly linked to the idea that Zerohash chose independence over a large strategic acquisition. CoinDesk previously reported that Mastercard could still consider a strategic investment even after takeover talks ended in its Jan. 16 update on the situation: Mastercard said to weigh Zerohash investment after takeover talks collapsed.
For market watchers, this matters because “strategic investment” often comes with distribution and partnership benefits, while still allowing the infra firm to sell broadly across the market rather than being absorbed into one ecosystem.
Funding for “pipes and plumbing” sometimes acts as a forward indicator because these companies monetize when other firms ship new capabilities.
When brokerages, neobanks, or payments apps add crypto trading, stablecoin payouts, or tokenized asset exposure, they often prefer to integrate an existing regulated provider rather than build custody, compliance, and settlement in-house. That is the wedge that infrastructure firms sell.
If a $250M round closes, it can reasonably be interpreted as a bet that the next 12 to 24 months bring more embedded-crypto product launches, more stablecoin-based settlement, and more tokenization experiments inside mainstream finance.
Because this is still described as “talks,” the most useful signals are the ones that confirm the raise is real and what it is meant to fund.
One signal is deal structure. If the round is led by traditional financial institutions or includes strategic capital, it suggests go-to-market acceleration and distribution partnerships.
Another signal is licensing and jurisdiction coverage. For example, Zerohash Europe appears on France’s AMF white list as a MiCA-licensed CASP passporting into France, according to the AMF entry for zerohash europe B.V.. Whether the new raise expands similar permissions elsewhere is a practical catalyst for enterprise adoption.
A third signal is product focus. Any emphasis on stablecoin infrastructure, tokenization workflows, or cross-border settlement will likely map to where institutions are actually deploying crypto in production.
Zerohash’s reported plan to raise $250M at a $1.5B valuation is not a meme-coin headline. It is a “market structure” signal. When capital flows into regulated infrastructure, it often precedes a wave of institutional-facing crypto and stablecoin products that look boring at launch, then become the default rails behind consumer apps.
The post Zerohash Reportedly Raising at $1.5B appeared first on Crypto Adventure.
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