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.
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.
