Stripe, Advent Weigh $53 Billion PayPal Deal to Speed Shift to Blockchain Payments
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Stripe and private equity firm Advent International are exploring an acquisition of PayPal, a deal that industry executives say could accelerate the spread of blockchain-based payments infrastructure.
The Block reported on July 15 that Stripe and Advent had proposed buying PayPal for $53 billion. Reuters first reported the talks.
"Within the next several years, most money will exist and move on-chain in one form or another," Aishwary Gupta, global head of payments and financial services at Polygon Labs, told The Block. "This deal simply accelerates that transition."
Stripe has a merchant network and momentum in digital assets, while PayPal has hundreds of millions of users and stablecoin capabilities, he added. Combined, the two would create a platform capable of handling global payments at scale.
Both companies have been expanding their stablecoin businesses. Stripe has joined an open-standard consortium of more than 140 companies, including Visa, Mastercard and BlackRock, and is preparing to launch OpenUSD, or OUSD. The token's structure would distribute most reserve yield to distributors, potentially increasing competitive pressure on Circle's USDC and PayPal's PYUSD. PayPal was the first major fintech company to launch a dollar-pegged stablecoin, PYUSD, in 2023, and said earlier in July that the token can also be issued on the Polygon network.
Still, some analysts are cautious about the takeover's impact. William Blair analysts said the combined company could have greater influence in stablecoins, but PYUSD's market capitalization is only 4% of USDC's. Stripe also does not need to acquire PayPal to achieve its stablecoin goals, they said. Data from The Block show the circulating supply of Circle's USDC exceeds $70 billion, while PYUSD's market capitalization is about $2.8 billion.
PayPal shares closed at $55.52 after rising as much as 17% intraday following the acquisition report.
