Stripe acquires stablecoin platform Bridge for $1.1 billion – CoinJournal

• Stripe has closed a $1.1 billion acquisition of stablecoin firm Bridge
• The company re-established support for crypto payments in April, adding USDC on Ethereum, Solana, and Polygon in October 2024

Stripe has completed the acquisition of Bridge, a stablecoin platform that helps companies and businesses accept payments in stablecoins.

According to TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington, Stripe’s deal for Bridge is valued at $1.1 billion and is the fintech company’s largest to date. The TechCrunch founder shared the news via X.

Stripe’s acquisition of Bridge comes after reports of talks for a deal surfaced last week. This also comes after Stripe, which has recently increased its visibility in the crypto space with recent deals such as TaxJar and Lemon Squeezy, unveiled its latest crypto-focused feature.

The ‘Pay with Crypto’ feature, which integrates Paxos, allows companies to add stablecoins to their checkout systems. It’s a step that has also seen several other platforms partner to bring stablecoin payments to more businesses.

Stripe partners with Paxos to launch stablecoin payments platform https://t.co/4Zp4Ya4JmN

— CoinJournal (@CoinJournal) October 15, 2024

Stripe had previously halted crypto payments in 2018 before making a re-entry in April 2024. Stripe also partnered with Coinbase to integrate Base, a layer-2 network, in June. In July, the fintech expanded its crypto product to the European Union.

The most recent milestone saw Stripe re-introduce crypto payments with USDC on Ethereum, Solana, and Polygon.

Meanwhile, entrepreneurs Sean Yu and Zach Abrams unveiled Bridge in 2022. The platform raised $58 million from venture capital investors, with $40 million secured during a Series A round at a valuation of $200 million.