According to TechCrunch’s founder, Stripe, the international Fintech giant, has acquired Bridge in a $1 billion deal.
Bridge is a significant player in the stablecoin environment and markets its payment platform as a new way to process transactions. The platform is built on stablecoins and is backed by heavyweights Bedrock, Sequoia Capital, and Index Ventures.
According to leading sources, the deal, which neither party has publicly confirmed, would be the largest cryptocurrency acquisition in history, says TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington.
TechCrunch founder says $1bn Stripe and Bridge deal done
The mastermind behind technology platforms and media powerhouse TechCrunch, CrunchBase, and Arrington Capital was stoic in his statement to X, saying:
This deal is done. $1.1b https://t.co/J7ppK4uHw0
— Michael Arrington 🏴☠️ (@arrington) October 20, 2024
Stripe distanced itself from the crypto space in 2018 amid Bitcoin’s volatility but returned at a time when the currency is being strongly backed for growth and naturalization across the United States.
Stripe announced its return after a six-year break at the Solana Sessions, and Stripe’s Co-Founder John Collinson celebrated the landmark news in April of this year. He addressed the audience with a walkthrough of Stripe’s new instant processing payments, saying, “Are you ready for the new crypto?”
Crypto is back. @Stripe will start supporting global stablecoin payments this summer. Transactions instantly settle on-chain and automatically convert to fiat. Join the waitlist https://t.co/hws2OsU3Id and watch the demo (h/t @Solana) from Sessions. pic.twitter.com/zGKYW2FM6i
— John Collison (@collision) April 25, 2024
Bridge has software that presents a seamless way to integrate “stablecoins into your existing flow of funds through Bridge’s Orchestration APIs. Bridge handles all of the regulatory, compliance, and technical complexities.”
Stripe’s takeover of Bridge will be their most significant acquisition to date and the biggest the crypto industry’s has ever seen. Bridge raised $58 million from prospective investors and was previously valued at nearly $200 million.
Crypto has also been a central talking point of the 2024 United States Presidential elections, with Democratic candidate Kamala Harris addressing the currency in a statement. Harris earmarked a possible regulatory framework that could be implemented if elected as the next president of the United States. The document promised that the presidential candidate would support “a regulatory framework for cryptocurrency and other digital assets.”
Image: Pixlr.