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Fntech unicorn Stripe is considering acquiring Bridge.
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Stripe wants to enter stablecoins
If completed, the Bridge acquisition deal would be the largest in Stripe history for $70 billion. It also comes after the company re-entered the cryptocurrency industry for the first time in several years. The company first accepted cryptocurrency payments in 2014, before suspending it in 2018 due to technical issues and high transaction rates. Stripe just relaunched in October. The startup’s acquisition will provide the backbone for the company to delve deeper into stablecoins, which are cryptocurrencies pegged to another currency or financial instrument. The combined market capitalization of these coins, including Tether USDT, USDC USDC, and Dai DAI, exceeded $170 billion, according to Forbes Digital Asset Live Tracker.
Bridge, which provides software that allows businesses to accept cross-border stablecoin payments, processed more than $5 billion in payments annually, according to an August blog post from investor Sequoia. The company’s customers include government agencies such as the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Treasury, as well as companies such as SpaceX and Coinbase. But it still has a long way to go before it can overtake industry incumbents. For example, in 2023 Visa processed 212.6 billion transactions worth $12.3 trillion.
Trump clash raises hopes for further rise
October is often a bullish month for Bitcoin and other crypto industries, and history seems to be repeating itself. Bitcoin BTC has gained 12.8% this month, and its current price of $68,885 is its highest since July. Although there is no immediate obvious trigger, the move is likely due to growing expectations that Donald Trump will win next month’s presidential election.
According to Polymarket, investors give him a 60% chance of taking back the White House, even though most national polls say it will be a close race. Nevertheless, the odds revert to the odds as of July 21, when President Biden conceded the race to Kamala Harris. Polymarket odds also raise the chance of Republicans sweeping Congress to 40%, also the highest since Biden’s withdrawal. A unified government could benefit cryptocurrencies by regulating stablecoins in 2025 and allowing the passage of major legislation that resolves the turf war between the SEC and CFTC.
Source: Forbes Digital Assets, CoinGecko. Prices are current as of 2:30 pm on October 18, 2024.
SEC Twitter hacker goes to trial
On October 17, the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested 25-year-old Eric Council Jr. on charges of hacking and then illegally posting a fake Spot Bitcoin ETF approval message to his Securities and Exchange Commission X account in January. arrested as. The suspect allegedly accessed his account through a SIM swap attack in which the hacker tricked the phone company into assigning a phone number to a new device. The council is charged with conspiracy to commit aggravated identity theft and access device fraud.
This post immediately caused some fluctuations in the price of Bitcoin. Prices initially soared more than $1,000 due to massive hype surrounding the expected launch of the Spot Bitcoin ETF, which is the most successful in history and currently manages more than $60 billion in assets. After they regained access to the account and deleted the post, the price dropped by $2,000. The hack was also an embarrassing episode for the SEC when Twitter’s security team revealed that two-factor authentication was not set up as a safeguard for the account, which has 754,000 followers.
other places
Mysterious $30 million pro-Trump bet moves popular prediction market (Wall Street Journal)
Retail FOMO disappears as Bitcoin approaches its record (Bloomberg)
Dogecoin DOGE rises 7% as Musk promotes DOGE in President Trump’s Pennsylvania campaign (CoinDesk)
