Months after cofounder John Collison declared “crypto is back,” fintech unicorn Stripe is in talks to acquire startup Bridge, a provider of infrastructure for crypto stablecoins, five sources familiar with the discussions told Forbes. The price tag: $1 billion, three of these people said.
The acquisition, which is still under discussion and subject to either party walking away, would likely be the largest to date for Stripe, most recently valued at $70 billion. Regulatory considerations such as licenses, as well as compensation for employees including Bridge founders Zach Abrams and Sean Yu, remained potential hurdles, two of the sources said.
Stripe declined to comment. Bridge did not respond to comment requests.
The $1 billion valuation, which has not been previously reported, would represent a significant increase from Bridge’s previous funding rounds. The company had previously raised $58 million in total funding, per a Fortune article, most recently a $40 million Series A round that valued the company at $200 million, two of the sources said. Bridge had already received interest about a possible Series B raise at a higher valuation, they added.
Bloomberg previously reported the companies were discussing an acquisition.
After halting crypto payments in 2018 due to technical difficulties and high transaction rates, Stripe restarted them in October. Acquiring Bridge would provide a backbone for the company to venture more deeply into stablecoins, cryptocurrencies pegged to another currency or financial instrument. Such coins, which include Tether, USDC and Dai, carried a collective market cap of more than $170 billion, per Forbes’ Digital Assets live tracker.
Bridge, which offers software to enable businesses to accept cross-border payments made with stablecoins, has processed more than $5 billion in annualized payment volume, according to a blog post by investor Sequoia in August. It counts government departments like the U.S. State Department and U.S. Treasury, and companies like SpaceX and Coinbase among its customers. Other notable investors in Bridge include 1confirmation, Bedrock, Haun Ventures, Index Ventures, Oak HC/FT and Ribbit.
Founders Abrams and Yu are also well-known entrepreneurs in the crypto and payments ecosystems. They previously built a Venmo competitor called Evenly, which they sold to Block in 2013. Abrams held senior roles at payments companies Coinbase and Brex, while Yu worked at DoorDash and Airbnb. The two teamed up again to launch Bridge in 2022.
Stripe has made several acquisitions in recent years, all with undisclosed deal terms. In 2021, Stripe acquired TaxJar, a startup that had raised $62 million and reached a $179 million private valuation from investors, according to data from startup tracker PitchBook; in July, it acquired Lemon Squeezy, a startup that had reportedly turned down Series A funding offers.
Earlier in October, Stripe announced a new “Pay with Crypto” feature that integrated stablecoins with its customer checkout offerings while charging a 1.5% transaction fee. In an October 9 interview about the feature, president Will Gaybrick told Forbes that stablecoins could prove more efficient means of payment for some consumers, particularly outside the U.S. “One thing we say internally is [that] it turns out the killer app for crypto is just money,” Gaybrick said.
Asked directly if Stripe was attempting to acquire Bridge to help, Gaybrick demurred: “I basically can share that we are really investing heavily here [in stablecoins], and I don’t have any updates for now on that front,” he said.
Additional reporting by Jeff Kauflin and Katie Jennings.
