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Stripe has been refocusing on crypto in recent months, with co-founder John Collison saying ‘crypto is back’.
Fintech giant Stripe has acquired stablecoin platform Bridge in a $1.1bn deal, according to TechCrunch founder Micheal Arrington.
The deal marks the largest acquisition for Stripe and one of the largest in the cryptocurrency industry to date, reiterating Stripe’s interest in offering cryptocurrency services.
In an X post on yesterday (20 October), Arrington shared a TechCrunch article on the acquisition and said: “This deal is done. $1.1bn.”
The news comes days after reports revealed that the two companies were in talks about the deal.
Bridge, co-founded by former Coinbase executives Zach Abrams and Sean Yu in 2022, provides an API that assists companies accept stablecoins – a type of cryptocurrency designed to maintain a stable value, typically by being tied to a stable asset like a fiat (government-issued) currency such as US dollars or the euro.
The company, valued at $200m, had raised $58m this year from VC Sequoia, Ribbit Capital, Index Ventures, among other investors and Stripe’s acquisition would significantly increase the company’s current valuation.
Earlier this year, Stripe brought back crypto payments as part of its services, after a six-year hiatus in 2018. In an announcement made in Stripe’s annual user conference Sessions this year, co-founder John Collison revealed that the fintech will start supporting global crypto payments, starting with USDC stablecoins on the Ethereum, Solana and Polygon blockchains.
“Crypto is back,” he wrote on X. “Stripe will start supporting global stablecoin payments this summer. Transactions instantly settle on-chain and automatically convert to fiat.”
Shortly after, the fintech giant partnered up with the Nasdaq-listed crypto exchange Coinbase. Through the partnership, Stripe will incorporate Coinbase’s Layer 2 network Base into its crypto pay-out products and Coinbase will add Stripe as a payment method for customers purchasing crypto.
In July 2024, Stripe also enabled crypto purchases in the EU, allowing shoppers to purchase cryptocurrencies using a credit or debit card.
“This expansion allows crypto companies to help European consumers buy cryptocurrencies quickly and easily,” Stripe’s head of crypto John Egan told the Irish Independent.
The fintech company’s valuation surged to $70bn this year after VC Sequoia offered to buy up to $861m in Stripe shares at $21.51 each.
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