Stripe’s Bridge to Crypto

Crypto is so back, baby! Payments firm Stripe confirmed that today with its deal—reportedly $1.1 billion—to buy Bridge, a startup that helps companies make payments using stablecoin (a type of cryptocurrency backed by dollars and other traditional currencies). Given that Bridge’s revenue may be around $12 million,  as The Information estimated today, Stripe appears to be paying a massive price—reminiscent of crypto’s halcyon pre-2022 days.

But times have changed, and not just because Sam Bankman-Fried is now sharing a Brooklyn prison dorm with Diddy. Today there’s a little less crazy speculative fervor around cryptocurrencies and the like (remember NFTs?) and a little more emphasis on humdrum use of the blockchain to make financial services more efficient.