Payment processing giant Stripe is planning to acquire the stablecoin platform Bridge for a staggering $1.1 billion, according to a Forbes report on Monday.
The report revealed that the deal was in “advanced stages,” although representatives from both organizations have not yet commented.
Stripe’s Largest Deal
The report also noted that if the $1.1 billion deal with Strip goes through, it would be a huge jump from Bridge’s $200 million valuation and Stripe’s largest acquisition to date.
Stripe is a payment processing platform that enables businesses to accept credit and debit card payments and various other online payment methods.
According to the report, Stripe has emphasized that crypto is a massive priority for the company. In July, the company enabled crypto purchases in the EU, and earlier this month, Stripe introduced a “Pay with Crypto” feature that allows merchants to accept stablecoins.
In March, Stripe announced that it had surpassed the $1 trillion milestone in total payment volume for 2023, with the transactions from businesses using its platform accounting for approximately 1% of global gross domestic product (GDP).
The announced deal followed just six months after co-founder John Collison revealed that the company would start supporting global stablecoin payments.
It also came less than two weeks after Stripe launched stablecoin payments on its main payments user interface by integrating the Circle USD (USDC) stablecoin.
Over $58M in Funding
Co-founded by former Coinbase employees Zach Abrams and Sean Yu, Bridge is a stablecoin orchestration platform that facilitates the transferring and payments of stablecoins through its APIs.
Abrams served as the head of consumer at Coinbase and founded Evenly, a peer-to-peer payments company that Square eventually acquired. Yu also held engineering positions at Coinbase, Square, DoorDash, and Airbnb.
Bridge enables businesses to create, store, send, and accept stablecoins. This year, the company secured $58 million in funding from investors, including Sequoia, Ribbit, Index, and others.
The executives aim to make stablecoin more widely used by creating a global payment network. The technology is geared towards making global money transfers faster and cheaper.
Before the deal, Bridge boasted of reputable investors and high-profile customers. The startup established partnerships with clients like SpaceX and Coinbase.
