Fintech giant Stripe has acquired stablecoin platform Bridge for $1.1 billion, according to TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington. This makes this the largest acquisition ever for Stripe and the most valuable transaction in the crypto industry to date.
Founded by experienced entrepreneurs Sean Yu and Zach Abrams, Bridge has become one of the leading software solution providers that enable businesses to process stablecoin payments.
The acquisition is priced to reflect a significant premium from the $200 million valuation the company achieved when it raised $40 million of its total $58 million in venture capital in a Series A funding round, with Bridge’s investment in It’s an extraordinary return for the house.
This strategic partnership coincides with the company’s recent expansion into crypto services. The company reinstated cryptocurrency payments functionality for U.S. businesses earlier this month, supporting USDC transactions on multiple blockchain networks including Ethereum, Solana, and Polygon.
The acquisition follows Stripe’s partnership with Coinbase in June, where Stripe integrated the Base layer 2 network into its crypto payment service and established itself as a payment method within the Coinbase Wallet.
The deal signals Stripe’s ambition to expand its digital payments infrastructure from its already strong market-leading position valued at $70 billion. This is the second exit for Bridge executives, after their previous company, Evenly, a Venmo rival, was also sold to Block in 2013. Notably, Bridge co-founder Zach Abrams was a senior executive at Coinbase.
