Mastercard on Tuesday said it agreed to acquire BVNK, a London-based stablecoin infrastructure firm, for up to $1.8 billion. It’s the payment network’s biggest bet yet on the mainstreaming of digital currencies. The deal includes $300 million in payments that are contingent on BVNK hitting certain performance metrics and is expected to close this year, Mastercard said in a statement. The acquisition gives Mastercard, the world’s second-largest payment network after Visa , the ability to connect traditional payment rails with emerging blockchain-based systems. That will allow Mastercard to enmesh itself in payments ... (full story)