Payments giant Stripe has completed its acquisition of stablecoin platform Bridge in a deal valued at over $1 billion.
TechCrunch co-founder Michael Arrington confirmed the acquisition in an Oct. 20 X post without providing details, noting that the acquisition cost Stripe $1.1 billion.
As of this writing, the companies have not yet released any official statements regarding the acquisition.
Last week, crypto.news reported that the two companies were in the final stages of negotiations, but no decisions had been made. Neither Stripe nor Bridge confirmed the development at the time.
Founded in 2022 by former Coibase executives Zach Abrams and Sean Yu, Bridge makes it easy to create, transfer, and store stablecoins. The acquisition follows a $40 million funding round in August led by Sequoia, Ribbit and Index.
Meanwhile, for Stripe, the investment is in line with its plans to expand its services in the cryptocurrency space. The multinational payment processor first introduced Bitcoin payments in 2014, but discontinued it four years later citing low adoption rates.
Back in 2024, the company’s President John Collison announced its re-entry into the cryptocurrency sector with stablecoin payments, citing the growing demand for blockchain-based alternatives due to faster transaction speeds and lower costs. emphasized.
A stablecoin is a digital currency that is pegged to a stable asset (often the US dollar or other fiat currency) to avoid the volatility seen in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. Its stable value makes it suitable for everyday transactions.
On October 15th, Stripe partnered with Paxos to begin accepting Circle’s USDC stablecoin under the Pay with Crypto option. After this partnership, merchants in 70 countries can now start accepting stablecoin payments for fiat payments.
To date, Stripe has engaged with the crypto sector through various initiatives, including introducing payments to creators on X via USDC and launching a fiat-to-crypto transition service in 2022.
Demand for stablecoins increases
The recent acquisitions coincide with a surge in stablecoin usage, reaching an all-time high with a market capitalization of nearly $170 billion in Q3 2024. According to Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, this market could reach $3 trillion by 2030.
Recently, many traditional financial platforms have entered the competitive stablecoin market. Global payments network Visa, for example, confirmed that stablecoin trading volumes are approaching levels similar to those seen on traditional payment networks, with banks becoming fiat-backed in early October. We have launched a platform that can issue stablecoins.
Last year, PayPal entered the stablecoin market by launching PayPal USD (PYUSD) on Ethereum, allowing low-cost transfers without a central intermediary. Since then, the stablecoin has expanded to Solana, which boasts a market capitalization of over $627 million, per Coingecko data.
