In a strategic move, the fintech company Stripe acquired Bridge, a stablecoin platform, in a $1.1B deal. The deal was announced by TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington on his X handle and was later confirmed by both Stripe and Bridge.
This deal makes history by being the biggest acquisition made by Stripe and the largest deal involving a cryptocurrency firm.
With this acquisition, Stripe will become a mainstream fintech platform offering payment services in stablecoins. It will also become a central hub for interaction between traditional financial services and digital currencies. This deal will transition how stablecoins are used for mainstream financial transactions.
Bridge officials have said that this deal between Bridge and Stripe will make Bridge the blockchain version of Stripe.
More About Stripe
Stripe is a multinational Software as a Service (SaaS) company that offers online and in-person payment services. The company helps financial service providers by offering payment processing software.
It also provides Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) for e-commerce websites and mobile applications. In short, Stripe provides economic infrastructure for the internet.
The various technological services provided by Stripe are explained here.
- Payment Processing: The APIs provided by the Stripe platform can be integrated by payment service providers to their websites and mobile applications. The payments are processed only after any fraudulent transactions are blocked using its built-in mechanism called Radar. Stripe also uses a point-of-sales service called Terminal, which is available in Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Singapore, and the United Kingdom. Other notable services offered by Stripe include a merchant cash-advance scheme called Stripe Capital and Stripe Tax, a service that allows companies and merchants to tabulate and collect sales tax, VAT, and GST in over 30 countries and all US states.
- Corporate Finance: Stripe Issuing, a product of Stripe allows online businesses to create and customize their credit and debit cards.
- Atlas: Atlas is a platform founded by Stripe to help native and foreign startup companies register as US Corporations. Such companies are recently registered as limited liability companies. These companies will automatically have a business bank account and a Stripe merchant account.
- Link: Launched in May 2021, Link saves the payment details and auto-fills them.
More About Bridge
Bridge is a startup company that uses stablecoins as a means of transaction. It aims to simplify the process of global money transfer. Bridge provides many benefits to its users.
The Bridge can be used to integrate various stablecoins into an existing payment system, through specialized APIs, without disrupting their normal flow of work. They help businesses navigate all the legal and regulatory compliance issues involved in stablecoin integrations.
Users can issue stablecoins using Bridge’s API. They can accept payments in USD, EUR, USDC, USDT, or any other stablecoin and settle transactions in their stablecoin. The user’s native stablecoin reserves are invested in the US Treasury Funds.
Users can also transfer funds globally using the API of Bridge. Fund transfers can be settled within a short span of time. Money transfers can be done at internet speed across continents. Bridge also provides a global treasury for converting local currencies to stablecoins.
Global payment of salaries to employees can be done in digital currencies. Employees and businesses get to choose to receive funds in digital currencies. By receiving payment in stablecoins pegged to USD or Euro, users can spend locally and make international payments using USD or Euro.
Thus Bridge provides effective, tailormade solutions to ease money transfers by integrating stablecoins into mainstream financial transactions.
The Bottom Line
Stripe’s acquisition of Bridge will surely revolutionize online payment services. Stablecoins can now be used as a mainstream method of money transfer. This deal is a significant step towards the reduction of the gap between the traditional finance and the decentralized digital currencies.
Such initiatives by established fintech companies such as Stripe in integrating digital currency into mainstream transactions will help improve the general trust of people towards decentralized finance.
With the acquisition of Bridge by Stripe, users can also compare and contrast the pros and cons of traditional currencies and digital currencies and choose the best options that suit their needs and requirements.
