Capital One Financial Corporation announced it will acquire Brex, the corporate card and spend management company, for $5.15 billion in what represents the largest bank-fintech transaction ever completed.

Importantly for digital assets, Brex disclosed in September it planned native stablecoin payments, which under Capital One’s balance sheet and compliance stack could accelerate enterprise-grade stablecoin usage for cross-border treasury and supplier payouts. The move extends a consolidation streak following Capital One’s roughly $35 billion Discover Financial announcement, giving the bank broader distribution and underwriting scale to monetize software-driven payment flows. Expect tighter bank–fintech coupling and a shift from card-only economics to bundled software-plus-payments models.

Pedro Franceschi, who co-founded Brex in 2017, emphasized that the transaction differs from typical bank acquisitions focused on cost-cutting. "This isn't a story about cost synergies. It's a story about growth acceleration," Franceschi wrote in a letter to employees announcing the deal.

Under the terms of the agreement, Franceschi will continue to lead Brex following regulatory approval and closing, reporting to Frank LaPrade, a 30-year Capital One veteran who oversees the bank's engineering and marketing organizations. The structure is designed to preserve Brex's operational independence while providing access to Capital One's resources, including its $6 billion marketing budget and $6 billion R&D budget.

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