Stripe Eyes Bridge Buyout For $1 Billion To Expand Stablecoin Offerings

According to reports, Stripe, a Payment processing company is planning to buy Bridge, a fintech company that helps to move money using stablecoins such as Circle’s USDC and Tether’s USDT. The payment company is in talks to take over the fintech for a deal worth around $1 billion, according to unnamed individuals aware of the deal.

The purchase is yet to be finalized and the two companies have not officially confirmed anything. The report also stated that both parties could still cancel the deal.

Bridge Raised $40 Million In Its Series A Round, Totaling $58 Million

Bridge’s headquarters is located in Texas and it accepts payments from over 70 countries. It also allows businesses to take payments from anywhere with stablecoins. The firm secured $40 million in its last Series A round, bringing its total investment to $58 million. Many top companies took part in the funding round including Haun Ventures, Index, Ribbit Capital, and Sequoia.

If Stripe acquires Bridge, it will join other big companies entering the growing stablecoin industry. Revolut and Robinhood are among other firms that want to introduce their stablecoins. Visa is another fintech giant that just rolled out a platform that allows banks to create their fiat-supported tokens, also called stablecoins.

Many financial companies are picking up interest in stablecoins. This comes at a time when the European Union introduced strict rules about the use of stablecoins. The rules began in early 2024 and it made crypto exchanges remove stablecoins that don’t follow the rules from their platforms.

Stripe Recently Announced Merchants Can Accept Payments In Stablecoin

This is not the first time Stripe has ventured into the world of cryptocurrency. The payment company has been an advocate of cryptocurrencies but ceased its support in 2018. Stripe stopped supporting crypto because of price changes and other problems. The president and co-founder of Stripe noted that that was a “pretty terrible payment experience.”

Stripe was still very interested in cryptocurrencies even after that period. In 2022, the firm introduced a service that allows companies to give clients the ability to change fiat currency to cryptocurrencies. A few months ago, it also shared that it would let merchants accept payments in stablecoin.

Last summer, Stripe took over Okay, a small company that created easy-to-use software to help engineering leaders see how well their teams are doing. Okay was a small firm with only seven workers and had secured $6.6 million from investors like Kleiner Perkins and Sequoia Capital after completing Y Combinator’s Winter 2020 program.