Stripe in $1.1B Acquisition Deal for Stablecoin Platform Bridge

Looking to advance its cryptocurrency ambitions, payments processor Stripe has finalized a deal to buy stablecoin platform Bridge for $1.1 billion, according to a Sunday X post from TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington and later confirmed by Stripe and Bridge.

Bridge, which has raised $54 million in funding, was founded by Square and Coinbase alumni Zach Abrams and Sean Yu, and counts SpaceX and Coinbase (COIN) among its customers.

The startup previously said it aspired to become the blockchain version of Stripe, operating a global system in which other developers could integrate.

Stripe, which enables companies to accept payments online or in-person, has this year been exploring extending its offering to cryptocurrency through Circle’s USDC stablecoin.

CoinDesk reached out to Stripe and Bridge for comment but had not received a response by press time.

Read More: Stablecoins Increasingly Used for Savings, Payments in Emerging Countries, but Crypto Trading Still Leads: Report

Updated (14:40 UTC, Oct. 21): Adds confirmation by the two companies and posting by Stripe CEO Patrick Collison