To say the crypto industry sees a lot of money flowing each day would be an understatement. The industry sees massive amounts of money moved daily, but even with that, some deals stand out so much that they must be discussed. The new agreement between Stripe and Bridge happens to be one of them.
Just last week, TechCrunch’s founder Micheal Arrington reported a potential acquisition deal between Payment giant Stripe and the stablecoin platform Bridge, but nothing was confirmed yet. However, a tweet from Stripe’s CEO Patrick Collison on Monday confirmed that the deal is, in fact, in place.
Stablecoins are room-temperature superconductors for financial services. Thanks to stablecoins, businesses around the world will benefit from significant speed, coverage, and cost improvements in the coming years. Stripe is going to build the world’s best stablecoin… https://t.co/6yKi7OKXVT
— Patrick Collison (@patrickc) October 21, 2024
In his tweet, Collison expressed his admiration for stablecoins, calling them "room-temperature superconductors for financial services.” He believes Stablecoins will improve speed, coverage, and cost for many businesses around the world in the years to come.
1/ We’re thrilled to announce that Bridge is joining forces with Stripe.
— Bridge (@Stablecoin) October 21, 2024
Together, Bridge and Stripe will accelerate the adoption and utility of stablecoins - we'll make money easier to move, store and spend for everyone, in every country.
Excited about the Bridge acquisition, Collison also announced that “Stripe is going to build the world’s best stablecoin infrastructure.” However, despite Collison’s excitement, according to a Bridge post, the details of the deal are still subject to regulatory approval, and the deal itself has yet to be closed.
While there is no specific date for the deal to close, it has already been described as one of the largest takeovers in crypto history. And the numbers show that it is. It certainly exceeds other huge deals, such as Coinshares’ acquisition of Valkyrie Funds for $530 million in March 2024 and Robinhood’s $200 million acquisition of the BitStamp crypto exchange in June 2024.
Speaking of records, it’s also Stripe’s largest acquisition ever, and Stripe is known for many acquisitions.
Bridge was founded in 2022 by Zac Abrams and Sean Yu, who are Coinbase alumni. The platform does not issue stablecoins itself; instead, it provides a software platform that allows businesses to accept stablecoins as payment. As of today, Bridge claims that the platform has processed an annual payment volume of $5 billion since its launch for its clients, including SpaceX.
The Bridge acquisition certainly suits Stripe, which has been pushing into the world of stablecoin payments after closing up shop for crypto support about six years ago due to issues such as transaction speeds and high costs.
Earlier this month, Stripe added a “Pay with Crypto” option to its platform. This new feature allowed businesses to accept USD Coin (USDC) as payment from their customers. The feature was added in partnership with Paxos, another Stablecoin firm, and is supported in over 150 countries.
In light of the new partnership with Bridge, it remains unclear whether the Paxos partnership will be integrated into Stripe’s existing platform or if Bridge’s features will be placed elsewhere.
Apart from the tweet from Collison, neither Bridge nor Stripe has made an official statement on the deal as of this writing. Thus, many other details about the deal are not yet available.
Dayo Paul
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