Fireblocks Denies Report of $2.5 Billion Visa Acquisition Talks

Published October 22, 2026, 8:30 PM PKT. Based on the Fireblocks spokesperson statement reported by Cointelegraph on October 22, 2026 (primary source), and reporting by CoinDesk, Bitcoin Magazine, Crypto Briefing and Calcalist on October 22, 2026 on the Axios report that prompted the denial (secondary sources). This is the first MABOnChain article on a reported Visa acquisition of Fireblocks, and it is distinct from MABOnChain's earlier coverage of Visa stablecoin settlement and card programs, which concerned live products, not a corporate acquisition. No acquisition has been announced, and this article treats the Axios account as a report, not as an established fact.

Fireblocks has denied a report that Visa is buying it for about $2.5 billion. Axios reported on October 22, 2026, citing multiple unidentified sources, that Visa was in late-stage talks to acquire the crypto custody and infrastructure company, according to CoinDesk and Cointelegraph. Fireblocks pushed back the same day. "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 Fireblocks spokesperson told Cointelegraph. CoinDesk reported the same denial, and said Visa did not respond to requests for comment by press time. A Visa spokesperson told Cointelegraph that the company does not comment on rumors or speculation. The sequence matters for readers: the public record now contains a sourced report of talks and an on-record denial from the reported target, and nothing from either company confirming a deal.

The $2.5 billion report and the same-day denial

The denial is carefully worded, and the wording is part of the story. Fireblocks did not say it would never sell, never talk to a buyer, or never entertain an offer. It said the report is news to the company and not true at present time, a present-tense denial that leaves future developments open while rejecting the report as it stands. CoinDesk also reported that anonymous sources had said, over the past three or four weeks, that U.S. listed exchange Coinbase was also in the frame to buy Fireblocks, while noting that Coinbase had not replied to requests for comment. That account is itself anonymous and unconfirmed, and it is included here only to show that sale speculation around Fireblocks predates the Axios report, not as evidence that a sale is happening. No exchange ratio, deal structure, timetable or regulatory review has been disclosed by any party, because no party has announced a transaction.

The 69 percent markdown from the 2022 valuation

The reported price is where the story turns uncomfortable for late-stage investors. Fireblocks raised $550 million in a Series E funding round in January 2022, at a valuation of $8 billion, according to CoinDesk, Crypto Briefing and Calcalist. The round was led by D1 Capital Partners and Spark Capital, Calcalist reported, and brought the company's total reported funding to approximately $1.04 billion. A sale at approximately $2.5 billion would value the company roughly 69 percent below that 2022 peak, since $2.5 billion is less than a third of $8 billion. Crypto Briefing notes that Fireblocks has raised over $1 billion in total funding since its founding, which means a deal at the reported figure would raise awkward questions for backers who bought in near the top of the last crypto boom. The comparison is not exact, since a private fundraising valuation and an acquisition price measure different things, but the size of the gap explains why the report drew attention beyond the deal itself, as a repricing of venture-era crypto infrastructure valuations.

The Visa relationship that already exists

A deal, if it ever happened, would not be a cold introduction. Visa already uses Fireblocks infrastructure for more than 160 stablecoin-linked card programs, Crypto Briefing reported, and Fireblocks also supports Visa's USDC settlement pilots, which test using the dollar-pegged stablecoin to settle payments. Fireblocks serves more than 2,500 institutional clients with custody and wallet infrastructure, according to Crypto Briefing, and its technology uses multi-party computation, a form of pre-key sharding that splits control of private keys so no single party holds a complete key, CoinDesk reported. In September 2025, Fireblocks launched a stablecoin payments network with over 40 participants, including Circle and Bridge, according to Bitcoin Magazine and Crypto Briefing. Visa, for its part, said in September 2026 that its stablecoin settlement volume had passed a $20 billion annualized run rate, more than 15 times the prior year's level, Bitcoin Magazine reported, and Visa partnered with Zerohash in August 2026 to add stablecoin funding and payouts to Visa Direct. That existing overlap is why the report was plausible enough to circulate, and why the denial, rather than silence, was the company's answer.

What the denial does not settle

The denial settles the immediate claim and leaves the wider contest untouched. Payment incumbents spent 2026 buying or courting the companies that handle stablecoin and crypto rails rather than building them from scratch, Bitcoin Magazine reported, noting that Mastercard agreed in March 2026 to buy stablecoin infrastructure firm BVNK for up to $1.8 billion, closed that deal in August 2026, and secured a New York BitLicense along the way. Both card networks also joined a coalition of more than 140 companies behind Open USD, a dollar stablecoin designed to spread the economics of a $300 billion market beyond Tether and Circle, according to Bitcoin Magazine. Whether Fireblocks stays independent, talks to another buyer, or revisits a Visa deal later, none of that is answered by a same-day denial, and the next development to watch is a confirmation, a revised report with named sources, or a rival bidder emerging on the record. Until then, the accurate statement is narrow: a report said Visa was in late-stage talks at about $2.5 billion, and Fireblocks said that is not true at present time.

This article is news reporting and is not investment advice.

Sources

• Fireblocks spokesperson statement, as reported by Cointelegraph, Fireblocks Pushes Back on Reported $2.5B Visa Deal (October 22, 2026), primary source
• Axios report, as reported by CoinDesk, Crypto custody specialist Fireblocks denies it is in talks to be acquired by Visa (October 22, 2026), secondary source
• Bitcoin Magazine, Fireblocks Denies Report Of $2.5 Billion Visa Purchase (October 22, 2026), secondary source
• Crypto Briefing, Fireblocks denies report of $2.5 billion Visa acquisition talks (October 22, 2026), secondary source
• Calcalist, Not true at present time: Fireblocks rejects reports of $2.5 billion Visa deal (October 22, 2026), secondary source