Stripe has invested even more heavily in cryptocurrencies, reportedly acquiring stablecoin platform Bridge in a $1.1 billion deal.
After speculation surrounding the deal last week, TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington recently confirmed that the deal is complete. The acquisition of Bridge is the largest acquisition Stripe has made to date, making it one of the biggest acquisitions the still-nascent crypto industry has witnessed.
“This means that stablecoins will continue to gain traction in areas such as access, usage, applications, global expansion, and regulatory developments,” said Joel Hugentobler, crypto analyst at Javelin Strategy & Research. This proves once again our strong position.” “Stripe provides payment services to approximately 1% of the world’s gross domestic product, so stablecoins will be an efficient payment option that will help us expand our customer base and payment volumes around the world. “
Supported worldwide
Stripe has been trying to incorporate cryptocurrencies into its popular platform since adding Bitcoin as a payment option a decade ago. However, the company was forced to discontinue support for Bitcoin due to high costs and processing bottlenecks.
However, the company recently announced that it is working with Coinbase to bring stablecoin support to its platform. Stripe currently supports Circle’s USDC on Ethereum, Solana, and Polygon blockchains, and Pax Dollar on Ethereum and Solana. On the first day of stablecoin support, Stripe processed transactions in 70 countries.
stablecoin ambitions
However, the bridge transaction suggests that Stripe has ambitions beyond simply supporting stablecoin transactions. Bridge is a payments network founded two years ago by former Coinbase executives. The platform provides businesses with the ability to create, store, send, and receive stablecoins.
In fact, Bridge is being called the Web3 version of Stripe, and the startup has received $58 million in funding from some of the biggest companies in the industry. However, the cryptocurrency company has yet to reach a valuation anywhere near the $1.1 billion that Stripe is expected to pay.
Still, stablecoins are one of the key payments innovations to emerge in recent years. Stablecoins track fiat currencies such as the US dollar on a 1:1 basis and have often been touted as a potential solution for cross-border payments. Tether’s USDT is currently the leading stablecoin, with USDC in a distant second place.
However, payment giant PayPal recently successfully launched its own stablecoin PayPal USD (PYUSD). It’s unclear whether Stripe plans to follow suit after acquiring Bridge.
