Stripe's $53B PayPal Bid Would Combine Bridge and PYUSD Under One Owner

A Stripe takeover of PayPal would fold two of the payments industry's crypto operations into one company, pairing Stripe's Bridge stablecoin infrastructure with PayPal's PYUSD token and crypto-trading business.

Stripe and private-equity firm Advent International made an unsolicited joint offer to buy PayPal for $60.50 a share, valuing it at more than $53 billion, Reuters reported Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter. The Financial Times and CNBC confirmed the offer.

Crypto Footprint

The crypto footprint on each side is already substantial. PayPal's PYUSD, a dollar-backed stablecoin issued through Paxos, has about $2.83 billion in circulation as of Wednesday, according to DefiLlama, and PayPal offers Bitcoin and other crypto trading to its account base.

Stripe bought Bridge for $1.1 billion, the stablecoin API business behind its crypto stack, in what was at the time the largest crypto acquisition by a payments company. Stripe then acquired wallet startup Privy for an undisclosed sum and launched Tempo, a payments-focused blockchain, with crypto venture firm Paradigm. A single owner would sit on top of both. A single owner would sit on top of both.

On the deal itself, the bid represents about a 28% premium to PayPal's July 14 closing price of $47.37 and is backed by roughly $50 billion in committed bank financing, according to Reuters. Stripe, Advent, and Block are contributing about $17 billion in equity, CNBC reported. Stripe and Advent would hold equal stakes and jointly own PayPal rather than break it up. PayPal shares climbed about 16% in premarket trading Wednesday.

For crypto, the significance is consolidation. Two firms that have separately pushed stablecoins onto mainstream payment rails would combine issuance, distribution, and settlement under one roof, at a scale that reaches hundreds of millions of consumers and merchants. It would also concentrate a large share of regulated, brand-name stablecoin activity in a single entity at a moment when banks and fintechs are racing to launch their own tokens.

Two Stablecoin Strategies Under One Roof

"This offer signals that mainstream payments infrastructure is converging around crypto rails in a bigger way than ever," said Stefan Deiss, co-founder and chief executive of The Hashgraph Group, in emailed comments.

"A combined Stripe-PayPal entity would give over 400 million consumers seamless access to both Bitcoin, via PayPal's Paxos integration, and stablecoin infrastructure, via Stripe's Bridge acquisition. That kind of reach normalises crypto adoption at scale."

Stripe is valued at about $159 billion in a February employee tender offer. The Defiant has tracked Stripe assembling that stack, and Bridge's stablecoin-linked cards have expanded to more than 100 countries with Visa.

PayPal, for its part, expanded PYUSD to 70 markets in March and lets users buy, hold, send, and earn rewards on the token inside their accounts. PYUSD's circulating supply trails the two largest dollar stablecoins, Tether's USDT at about $184 billion and Circle's USDC at roughly $73 billion, DefiLlama data show.

Deiss said the two firms' approaches are not easily combined. "Stripe's stablecoin-first approach via Bridge and PayPal's multi-coin model with Bitcoin represent fundamentally different technology stacks," he said. "At the scale this combined entity would operate, you need enterprise-grade distributed ledger infrastructure that can handle compliance, auditability, and settlement with institutional-grade guarantees."

Not a Done Deal

The crypto combination is only a prospect. PayPal has not responded to the offer, which the companies submitted earlier this month following an initial approach in early April. The bid is unsolicited, and there is no guarantee PayPal's board accepts it or that a deal closes. PayPal was valued near $360 billion at its 2021 peak, and some shareholders may view $60.50 a share as too low against that history.

Regulators pose a further hurdle. "Antitrust scrutiny is inevitable given the combined market share," Deiss said. "On the crypto side, stablecoin regulation will shape how products like PYUSD and Bridge can operate under unified ownership."

PayPal's board is expected to meet as soon as July 20 to discuss the offer, according to CNBC. The parties are seeking to advance talks in the coming weeks.