Stripe Acquires Stablecoin Platform Bridge For $1 Billion: TechCrunch Founder

Payments company Stripe, which recently broke its six-year cryptocurrency break, has completed its acquisition of stablecoin platform Bridge, according to TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington.

Forbes first reported about Stripe and Bridge discussing an acquisition. Forbes later reported that the deal was to acquire Bridge for $1.1 billion. At the time, the reports noted that talks have reached advanced stages, but nothing was finalized.

On Sunday, Arrington revealed on X that the parties have struck a deal for the acquisition, but no further details were immediately provided.

Bridge confirmed the acquisition on Monday. "We share a vision for the future, clarity around the problems that can be solved, and a long-term orientation regarding how we execute towards this opportunity. Together, we'll be able to solve bigger problems, support more developers, and help more consumers and businesses all across the world," the stablecoin firm said in a statement.

Stripe CEO Patrick Collison also revealed the company's plans. "Stripe is going to build the world's best stablecoin infrastructure, and, to that end, we are delighted to welcome @stablecoin to @stripe," he wrote on X.

Largest Acquisition in Crypto History

The acquisition is the largest yet in the cryptocurrency industry, according to The Block. It is also Stripe's largest acquisition so far, further cementing the payments company's position as a fintech firm that embraces crypto's impact on the new digital economy.

Many crypto users on X welcomed the news, with some saying it will further open up the crypto space to "normies," or Web2 users who have yet to have a taste of the crypto experience.

Technologist Luke Youngblood said he believes that the payments segment is "the first real use case for normies to adopt crypto."

What is Bridge?

Bridge describes itself as "an entirely new payments platform, built with stablecoins, to simplify global money movement." It allows service providers to issue their own stablecoins "in minutes" and empowers them to seamlessly integrate stablecoins into their existing flow of funds.

Notably, Bridge is backed by some of the most prominent names in the investment circle, including Bedrock, Sequoia Capital, and Index Ventures.

Stripe Resumes Crypto Support

In March, Stripe announced that it was done with its six-year break on supporting crypto payments, saying it will return to the space through the USDC stablecoin. At the time, the company announced that it will initially support USDC transactions on the Ethereum, Solana, and Polygon chains, but will ultimately announce a more expansive list of supported blockchains.

Earlier this month, Stripe product lead Jeff Weinstein announced that Stripe has officially returned to the crypto space. He said Stripe facilitates stablecoin payments across more than 150 countries.

He went on to reveal that while the Stripe crypto feature works with checkout, payment intents and elements for now, it will soon be available for subscriptions.

Stripe walked away from the crypto space in 2018 amid Bitcoin's volatility at the time. However, crypto markets went through several bullish phases since then, making the fintech firm miss out on some of the most beneficial crypto cycles over the years.

Its return to supporting crypto comes at a time when analysts and the crypto community expects significant gains, backed by historical upticks during the last quarter of the year.

This article has been updated to include the official statements of Bridge and Stripe CEO Patrick Collison. Updated on Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024, 6:22 a.m. ET.