Stripe Reportedly in Talks to Acquire Stablecoin Provider Bridge

Multinational payments firm Stripe is said to be in talks with the Texas-headquartered stablecoin payments hub Bridge to expand its portfolio of crypto offerings.

Payments giant Stripe is reportedly in talks to acquire Bridge, a stablecoin payments hub in Texas, expanding Stripe’s crypto offerings.

The talks are still ongoing and no final decision has been made, a source familiar with the matter told Bloomberg on Monday. Officials from both Bridge and Stripe declined to comment as of press time.

If acquired, the deal would bolster Stripe's presence in the crypto market as it looks to expand its services.

In late April, Stripe President John Collison highlighted the benefits of crypto transactions, specifically mentioning their “instant settlement” on-chain and automatic conversion to fiat.

“The main benefit of crypto is that it settles instantly on-chain and can be automatically converted to fiat. This enables new use cases and unlocks huge efficiency gains,” Collison said during an earnings call.

In early October, Stripe, in partnership with stablecoin issuer Paxos, launched its “Pay with Crypto” feature, allowing merchants in over 70 countries to accept stablecoin payments that settle as fiat.

Merchants can also issue refunds by converting fiat currency back into stablecoins and sending the refund directly to the original payment wallet.

Bridge, founded in 2022 by former Square and Coinbase executives Zach Abrams and Sean Yu, allows its customers not only to accept and send stablecoins, but also settle funds in a made-from-scratch stablecoin, according to the company's website.

In August, Bridge secured $40 million in a round led by Sequoia and Ribbit, bringing the total raised amount to $58 million.