According to people familiar with the matter, blockchain infrastructure company Zerohash is negotiating to raise US$250 million at a valuation of US$1.5 billion.
The company recently pulled out of acquisition talks with Mastercard, although the payments giant is still considering a strategic investment in Zerohash and discussions are ongoing, CoinDesk reported.
As more financial institutions begin to offer tokenized assets, stablecoins, and on-chain settlement at scale, the need for enterprise-grade crypto infrastructure continues to grow.
Zerohash had not responded to a request for comment as of the time of publication. Amounts are subject to change as discussions are ongoing.
Fortune reported in October that Mastercard was in late-stage talks to acquire Zerohash, a deal that could value the potential acquisition candidate as much as $2 billion.
Zerohash raised $104 million in a Series D-2 round led by Interactive Brokers in October, valuing the company at $1 billion.
The company said at the time that the round attracted new investors including Morgan Stanley, funds managed by Apollo, SoFi, Jump Crypto, Northwestern Mutual Future Ventures, FTMO, IMC and Liberty City Ventures, as well as existing backers PEAK6, tastytrade and Nyca Partners.
Founded in 2017, Zerohash provides APIs and embedded development tools that enable financial institutions and fintech companies to offer cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, and tokenized products.
Its platform supports clients including Interactive Brokers, Stripe, BlackRock’s BUIDL Funds, Franklin Templeton and DraftKings, and serves more than 5 million users in 190 countries.
Read more: Mastercard reportedly considering investing in Zerohash after ending multibillion-dollar acquisition talks