Stripe and Advent made a $53 billion bid to buy PayPal. PayPal was valued at $360 billion in 2021, but that has now fallen to just $36 billion due to competition from Apple Pay and other rivals. Stripe is making ambitious moves: Its subsidiary Bridge, which issues stablecoins, this year won conditional approval for a national trust bank charter, something the traditional banking industry has strenuously opposed, arguing it lets Stripe hold deposits in all but name without insurance or Fed oversight.
Buying PayPal would give the payment-processing firm access to its 400 million customers and their online wallets, useful infrastructure for the stablecoin plan. But, so far, PayPal has not acknowledged the offer.