Two Years Ago vs Today: Crypto Partnerships Become Infrastructure Deals

Those crypto-native assumptions are starting to break down, as underscored by the announcement by Circle of its acquisition of Tazapay on Tuesday (Sept. 8), with the all-stock transaction valued at $400 million. Tazapay brings more than $25 billion in annualized payment volume, more than 60 banking and FinTech partners and local payout rails spanning more than 100 markets. Roughly 60% of its transaction volume already involves stablecoins.

As a result, the deal appears to be less about a crypto-native firm adding another crypto capability than absorbing a piece of the machinery required to make digital dollars useful in institutional payments. Tazapay had already been a design partner for Circle Payments Network. Now Circle wants to own it.

That progression from partner to infrastructure provider, to acquisition target, captures the broader change taking place across digital assets. Banks, payment networks and crypto firms are moving beyond exploratory pilots and distribution agreements toward combinations designed to solve specific problems in settlement, liquidity, interoperability, tokenization and cross-border money movement.

Read more: How 21 Banks Changed the Conversation Around Stablecoins and Tokenized Deposits