Reportedly, in a $1.1 billion purchase, payment behemoth Stripe has bought Bridge, a stablecoin-based payments system. Based on TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington, this would be among the biggest purchases in the cryptocurrency market. Despite neither business having formally announced the agreement, Arrington posted on social media on October 20, declaring that the deal was complete. $1.1b.
With operations in San Francisco and Dublin, Stripe’s valuation reached $70 billion in July, making this the largest acquisition to date. Founded in 2022 by former Coinbase executives Zach Abrams and Sean Yu, Bridge has been creating stablecoin payment options meant to challenge established systems, including credit card networks and SWIFT. The company’s valuation before the purchase came at $200 million, and it had earlier secured $58 million in capital.
Bridge gives companies tools to design, save, transmit, and receive payments in stablecoins—digital currencies linked to steady assets like the US dollar. Bridge’s purchase by Stripe aligns with the company’s recent endeavor to include stablecoin payments on its platform, therefore allowing companies to transact worldwide using digital currencies like USD Coin (USDC).
Stripe debuted stablecoin payments in 70 countries earlier this year, enabling users of USDC to perform transactions on many blockchain systems like Ethereum, Solana, and Polygon. Just six months after co-founder John Collison revealed Stripe’s stablecoin goals, this most recent action supports Stripe’s will to increase its crypto capabilities.
Along with fortifying Stripe’s position in the digital payments ecosystem, the purchase of Bridge points to a larger trend toward mainstream economic acceptance of blockchain-based financial solutions.
