Here are the biggest news in web3:

Two of the biggest names in payments have become two of the biggest names in stablecoins. A takeover bid would put both books under one roof.

Stripe, with private-equity firm Advent International, made an unsolicited roughly $53 billion bid for PayPal. If PayPal accepts, the deal would pair Stripe's Bridge and Privy stablecoin infrastructure with PayPal's PYUSD token and crypto-trading business, consolidating two mainstream payments companies' stablecoin operations into one.

The bid is a bet on where payments are heading. Stripe bought Bridge to own stablecoin rails; PayPal built PYUSD to issue its own dollar. Combining them would create a payments giant that both issues a stablecoin and runs the infrastructure to move it, the kind of vertical stack competitors would need years to assemble.

Read more below!

PARTNER

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WATCH

Passive Income on Ethereum for All: How Rocket Pool Scales Liquid Staking

Banks and settlement giants are racing onto Ethereum this week — and the yield underneath it all comes from staked ETH. This explainer breaks down how Rocket Pool scales liquid staking to open that yield to everyday holders, down to fractional stakes. Camila Russo hosts.

TRADFI AND FINTECH

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

Stripe and private-equity firm Advent International made an unsolicited ~$53 billion bid for PayPal. If accepted, it would pair Stripe's Bridge stablecoin infrastructure with PayPal's PYUSD token and crypto-trading arm, folding two mainstream payment firms' stablecoin operations into a single company.

	TICKER	VALUE	24H
	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. thedefiant.io

Why this matters: A single owner issuing PYUSD and running Bridge's rails would be a vertically integrated stablecoin powerhouse, and the clearest sign yet that payments giants now treat stablecoins as core infrastructure.

TRADFI AND FINTECH

DTCC Starts Live Tokenized-Securities Trades With More Than Two Dozen Firms

The DTCC, the plumbing that clears and settles most US securities trades, began live production trades of tokenized real-world assets with more than two dozen firms, with a full service launch set for October. The move pushes Wall Street's largest tokenization effort out of testing and into a live environment.

Why this matters: When the settlement layer for US markets runs tokenized trades in production, tokenization stops being a pilot story. This is the rail the rest of TradFi's onchain plans depend on.

HACKS

Ostium Halts Trading After Oracle Exploit Drains up to $18M from Vault

Ostium halted trading after an oracle exploit drained up to $18 million from one of its vaults on Arbitrum, per security firm Blockaid. The attacker used a registered price-feed forwarder and future-dated oracle reports to book fake trading profits.

Why this matters: It is the second oracle exploit this week after Bonzo Lend. The price-feed layer, the part protocols outsource and rarely audit, is becoming DeFi's most-targeted seam.

REGULATION

Argentine Judge Orders ID, Freeze of 25 LIBRA-Linked Crypto Wallets

An Argentine judge ordered the identification and freezing of 25 crypto wallets tied to the LIBRA token that President Javier Milei promoted before its collapse, widening the legal fallout from the memecoin.

Why this matters: A sitting president's memecoin endorsement is now a court matter with wallets frozen. It is a cautionary marker for how fast political token promotions can turn into legal exposure.