Dive Brief:
- Payments software giant Stripe will acquire stablecoin platform Bridge, executives from both companies confirmed on Monday via separate statements posted to social media platform X.
- Stripe was reportedly considering paying $1.1 billion to buy Bridge, Forbes reported last week, although a Stripe spokesperson would not confirm the value of the deal on Monday, or say when the transactions might be finalized.
- The payments firm — which has dual headquarters in San Francisco and Dublin — will purchase San Antonio, Texas-based Bridge to simplify cross-border money movement, Stripe CEO Patrick Collison said in a post on X. "Thanks to stablecoins, businesses around the world will benefit from significant speed, coverage, and cost improvements in the coming years," Collison wrote.
Dive Insight:
Bridge helps companies use stablecoins — cryptocurrencies tied to the value of a traditional currency, such as the U.S. dollar — to accept payments and move money between countries. CEO Zach Abrams said the company's size has increased exponentially in 2024.
“Our business has grown >10x this year," he said in a post on X.
Neither company commented on the timeline for the deal. A Stripe spokesperson declined to comment beyond what was written on X. Abrams and Bridge co-founder Sean Yu did not respond to LinkedIn messages. Both are former employees of the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, according to TechCrunch.
Customers of Bridge include Coinbase and Space X, according to the cryptocurrency news site CoinDesk. The company aspired to be a Web3 version of Stripe, buy the Salt Lake City-based startup Lemon Squeezy, which provides services like tax compliance, subscription management and fraud prevention to merchants.
