Stripe and private-equity firm Advent International have made an unsolicited offer to buy PayPal for $60.50 a share, valuing the company at more than $53 billion, according to Reuters, which cited people familiar with the matter. The Financial Times and CNBC also confirmed the bid.
If the transaction goes through, two established crypto businesses in the payments industry would end up under one owner: Stripe’s Bridge stablecoin infrastructure on one side, and PayPal’s PYUSD token plus its crypto-trading operation on the other.
Both companies already have sizable crypto operations
PayPal’s footprint in crypto is already significant. PYUSD, the dollar-backed stablecoin issued through Paxos, had about $2.83 billion in circulation as of Wednesday, according to DefiLlama. PayPal also offers Bitcoin and other crypto trading to users on its platform.
Stripe has built out its own crypto stack through acquisitions and product launches. The company bought Bridge for $1.1 billion, making it at the time the largest crypto acquisition by a payments company. It later acquired wallet startup Privy for an undisclosed amount and launched Tempo, a payments-focused blockchain, with crypto venture firm Paradigm. A successful takeover of PayPal would place all of those pieces under the same ownership structure.
Offer terms point to a large premium and major financing package
Reuters reported that the bid represents about a 28% premium to PayPal’s July 14 closing price of $47.37. The offer is also backed by roughly $50 billion in committed bank financing.
CNBC said Stripe, Advent, and Block are contributing about $17 billion in equity. Stripe and Advent would hold equal stakes and jointly own PayPal rather than split the company apart. PayPal shares climbed about 16% in premarket trading on Wednesday after the reports appeared.
A combined company would unite stablecoin issuance, distribution, and settlement
For crypto markets, the main implication is consolidation. Stripe and PayPal have separately pushed stablecoins onto mainstream payment rails. Under a single owner, issuance, distribution, and settlement would sit inside one corporate structure operating at a scale that reaches hundreds of millions of consumers and merchants.
That would also concentrate a large share of regulated, consumer-facing stablecoin activity in one entity at a time when banks and fintech firms are moving to launch tokens of their own.
Two different stablecoin models would be brought together
“This offer signals that mainstream payments infrastructure is converging around crypto rails in a bigger way than ever,” Stefan Deiss, co-founder and chief executive of The Hashgraph Group, said in emailed comments.
He added: “A combined Stripe-PayPal entity would give over 400 million consumers seamless access to both Bitcoin, via PayPal’s Paxos integration, and stablecoin infrastructure, via Stripe’s Bridge acquisition. That kind of reach normalises crypto adoption at scale.”
Stripe was valued at about $159 billion in a February employee tender offer. The Defiant said it has tracked Stripe’s effort to assemble that crypto stack. Bridge’s stablecoin-linked cards have expanded to more than 100 countries through Visa.
PayPal, meanwhile, expanded PYUSD to 70 markets in March and allows users to buy, hold, send, and earn rewards on the token within their accounts. DefiLlama data show PYUSD remains well behind the two biggest dollar stablecoins by circulation: Tether’s USDT at about $184 billion and Circle’s USDC at roughly $73 billion.
Deiss said the two companies are not bringing easily compatible approaches. “Stripe’s stablecoin-first approach via Bridge and PayPal’s multi-coin model with Bitcoin represent fundamentally different technology stacks,” he said. “At the scale this combined entity would operate, you need enterprise-grade distributed ledger infrastructure that can handle compliance, auditability, and settlement with institutional-grade guarantees.”
The deal is still only a proposal
The crypto combination remains hypothetical. PayPal has not responded to the offer. Reuters said the companies submitted the bid earlier this month after an initial approach in early April.
Because the bid is unsolicited, there is no assurance that PayPal’s board will accept it or that the transaction will close. PayPal was valued near $360 billion at its 2021 peak, and some shareholders may see $60.50 a share as too low when compared with that history.
Board review and regulation could determine what happens next
Regulation is another obstacle. “Antitrust scrutiny is inevitable given the combined market share,” Deiss said. “On the crypto side, stablecoin regulation will shape how products like PYUSD and Bridge can operate under unified ownership.”
According to CNBC, PayPal’s board is expected to meet as soon as July 20 to discuss the proposal. The parties are seeking to move talks forward in the coming weeks.