Payment processing company Stripe is reportedly in talks to acquire stablecoin platform Bridge, according to anonymous sources familiar with the deal.
According to Bloomberg, the deal has not yet been finalized and either party could walk away without signing it.
The potential acquisition by Stripe comes as the payments company plans to re-enter the digital assets space after a six-year hiatus from offering cryptocurrency payment services.
Stripe begins its move into cryptocurrencies
Earlier this year, Stripe co-founder John Collison announced that the company would be offering stablecoin services for the first time in six years. At the time, Collison explained that stablecoin transactions through Stripe are “settled instantly on-chain and automatically converted to fiat.”
In June 2024, Stripe and Coinbase partnered to create a fiat-to-crypto on-ramp and off-ramp for customers of both platforms. This partnership brings near-instant payment times and significantly reduced transaction costs via stablecoins to customers in over 150 countries.
On October 9th, Stripe introduced stablecoin payments to its primary payments user interface by integrating Circle’s USD USDCUSD stablecoin. After the USDC integration, users from over 70 countries participated in stablecoin transactions on the first day, highlighting the growing global demand for tokenized fiat currency equivalents.
This is important for individuals involved in cross-border transactions, which typically incur large transaction fees and take several days to settle. More specifically, senders and receivers of remittances can avoid the high fees that can stifle sending money to loved ones and make small transfers prohibitive.
Days after the USDC integration began, Paxos, the company responsible for the Pax Dollar (USDP) stablecoin, has debuted a new stablecoin payments platform.
The new platform will focus on providing stablecoin services to payment service providers looking to incorporate the Paxos application programming interface (API) into their systems, rather than individuals or small businesses.
As part of the announcement, Paxos revealed that Stripe has become the first payment processor to integrate the Paxos API into its operations.
