Stripe, Advent Offer $53 Billion for PayPal in Bet on Blockchain Payments

Stripe and private equity firm Advent International are pursuing a takeover of PayPal, a deal industry executives say could speed the rollout of blockchain-based payments infrastructure.

Stripe and Advent have proposed acquiring PayPal for $53 billion, The Block reported on July 15, citing an earlier Reuters report.

Aishwary Gupta, Polygon Labs' global head of payments, told The Block that most money will exist and move on blockchain rails in some form within the next several years. The transaction would simply accelerate that shift, he said. Stripe brings a merchant network and momentum in digital assets, while PayPal has hundreds of millions of users and stablecoin capabilities. Combined, they could create a platform capable of processing large-scale global payments, he added.

Both companies have recently expanded their stablecoin efforts. Stripe has joined an open-standards consortium of more than 140 companies, including Visa, Mastercard and BlackRock, and is preparing to launch OpenUSD, or OUSD. The structure would distribute most reserve income to distributors, potentially increasing competitive pressure on Circle's USDC and PayPal's PYUSD. PayPal became the first major fintech company to launch a dollar-pegged stablecoin, PYUSD, in 2023, and said earlier this month that PYUSD can also be issued on the Polygon network.

Still, some analysts are cautious about the deal's potential 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. The Block data show USDC circulation exceeds $70 billion, compared with about $2.8 billion for PYUSD.

PayPal shares jumped as much as 17% intraday after the acquisition report and closed at $55.52.