Collison brothers’ payments company Stripe has acquired stablecoin platform Bridge for $1.1 billion, reports The Block, attributing the breaking news to TechCrunch founder and well-known venture capitalist Michael Arrington.
The deal marks Stripe’s largest acquisition and is also a record for the crypto industry despite Bridge’s relatively under-the-radar status.
It follows reports that the firms were in advanced acquisition talks, with Bridge later confirming it was joining forces with Stripe in a post on X.com.
Notably, Bridge appears to own the @stablecoin handle on the social media platform.
Bridge, founded by entrepreneurs Sean Yu and Zach Abrams, provides software tools that help companies accept payments in stablecoins.
The founders previously sold a Venmo competitor called Evenly to Jack Dorsey’s Block in 2013, and Abrams is also a former Coinbase executive.
Bridge had previously raised $58 million from investors, including a $40 million Series A round that valued it at $200 million, making this deal a significant jump in its price tag.
An early pioneer of bitcoin payment support in 2014, Stripe recently reinstated crypto payments for US businesses via USDC on Ethereum, Solana and Polygon.