Stripe to Buy Stablecoin Platform Bridge for $1.1 Billion

What Happened?
Stripe, the big online payment company, is buying Bridge, a startup that works with stablecoins**, for a massive $1.1 billion. This deal is one of Stripe’s biggest acquisitions and backs up the promise its CEO made earlier this year to offer stablecoin payments by summer.

Who’s Involved?

Bridge was started in 2022 by two former Coinbase executives, Zach Abrams and Sean Yu. They created Bridge to compete with traditional payment systems like SWIFT and credit cards. Stripe’s CEO, Patrick Collison, said this acquisition will help the company build top-tier stablecoin technology.

Why It Matters

This is a huge move for Stripe, which has become a key player in online payments. The company is valued at $70 billion and recently hit $1 trillion in payment volume, handling about 1% of the world’s GDP. The acquisition also comes just after Stripe integrated stablecoin payments using USDC, a step toward supporting crypto transactions globally.

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Stablecoins: Cryptocurrencies that are tied to a stable asset, like the US dollar, to prevent big price swings.
SWIFT: A system used by banks for secure international money transfers.
Payment volume: The total amount of money handled by a payment platform.