Dashed Deal Between Nuvei & Payoneer
Nuvei unveiled a bid in June to acquire outstanding shares of Payoneer for $7.40 each. The transaction is contingent on approval from shareholders of both companies and regulators, with a projected closing date around mid-2027.
Bigger Payments Entity
Once Nuvei is built out, the new company is expected to:
- Generate approximately $3 billion in annual revenue
- Handle over $500 billion in annual payment volume
- Provide solutions to more than 2.4 million customers
- Do business in more than 190 countries and territories
Nuvei - Payoneer Transaction Details
What’s more neither companies said where these transactions are going to happen – on a stablecoin – but that closes the current positive crypto narrative.
| Detail | What does it mean |
|---|---|
| $2.75B all-cash deal | A win for tangible payments infrastructure |
| Annual run-rate projected to be over $500B | Scale of network stablecoins could connect to |
| 190+ countries/regions | Local payout, FX and compliance coverage |
| Stablecoins referred to in the contract terms | Token settlement is just one of many features |
Why Stablecoins Are the Real Story
The real story is actually the stablecoins here. Payoneer does plenty of things beyond crossing borders:
- Global Licensing: It is licensed in China and permitted to support cross-border payments for India.
- Core Capabilities: It enables companies to accept payments, prevent scams, and manage multiple currencies.
- Crypto Integration: It supports crypto payments alongside traditional financial services.
When Payoneer & Nuvei combine, it simply means that under the hood of the current payment infrastructure, we are starting to support stablecoin-settled payments.
This is happening within the licensed payment infrastructure rather than an independent alternate avenue. Jumping directly to an alternate route isn’t simple; executing a corporate transfer still requires customer identification, sanction screening, currency exchange, and local payment infrastructure support, none of which are achievable with stablecoins alone.
Beyond that, the real story behind Payoneer & Nuvei is that there is precedent here. Previous to this, Nuvei partnered with Visa in 2022 to execute USDC settlements on Solana and Ethereum, and later teamed up with BitGo and Rain for blockchain payment solutions in Latin America.
Part of a Wider Industry Pattern
Well, prior to this announcement in March 2023, payment giant Mastercard announced its acquisition of specialist stablecoin company BVNK in a $1.8 billion deal, with the stated objective of unifying payments between the traditional and decentralized networks.
Furthermore, Federal Reserve staff published a March report that outlined stablecoins could provide a number of improvements to cross-border payments, but noted they would not eliminate the need for foreign exchange liquidity or compliance and currency exchange processes.
What Happens Next?
The success of this stablecoin transaction in changing payments relies on three things:
- The extent to which the proposed Nuvei-Payoneer deal wins approval by then,
- Whether stablecoin specific transaction volume becomes known,
- Whether the usage becomes visible or invisible to end consumers as a method of payment.
