The crypto sector, currently valued at $2.38 trillion (roughly Rs. 2,00,08,386 crore), may have just seen the largest acquisition deal of the year. US and Ireland-based fintech firm Stripe has reportedly spent $1.1 billion (about Rs. 9,248 crore) to acquire Bridge, a platform that facilitates stablecoin issuance. Michael Arrington, founder of TechCrunch, claimed in a post on X that the deal has been finalised.
Arrington’s announcement lacked detailed information but received positive feedback from his followers, many of whom expressed that integrating crypto with traditional fintech should be the first step in promoting crypto adoption.
Payments are really heating up. My thesis is that payments are the first real use case for normies to adopt crypto. Visa’s margin is Stripe’s opportunity…
— LukeYoungblood.eth :shield: (@LukeYoungblood) October 20, 2024
While an official confirmation from Stripe and Bridge remains awaited, a report by Bitcoin.com states that Stripe is aiming to expand its footprint in the virtual digital assets (VDAs) sector via the acquisition. The platform is likely to use the software offered by Bridge, that enables businesses to accept stablecoin payments, to broaden its usability to more Web3 users. Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies that are pegged against fiat currencies.
Multiple reports have further called this acquisition the biggest so far in the Web3 space. Gadgets360 can neither confirm nor deny these reported claims.
As per its official website, Bridge is “built with stablecoins” that lets users move, store, and accept stablecoins while also letting entities issue their own stablecoin in minutes. For Bridge, this significantly adds to its valuation, which previously stood at around $200 million (roughly Rs. 1,681 crore).
Stripe, meanwhile, is currently experimenting with crypto-based purchases in the EU. Earlier in October, it added a Pay with Crypto feature to its platform in the EU that allows merchants to accept stablecoin payments.
Back in 2022, the platform announced the launch of a ‘fiat-to-crypto’ service that would allow users to exchange their dollars for cryptocurrency. Around the same time, the company had onboarded Matt Huang, the co-founder of crypto-focused venture capital firm Paradigm, to be a part of its board of directors.