On June 11, global payment giant Stripe announced the acquisition of cryptocurrency wallet service provider Privy, just four months after completing the acquisition of the stablecoin platform Bridge.
Stripe accelerates its layout of stablecoin and crypto payment infrastructure through the acquisition of Privy and Bridge. As the development of crypto compliance continues to advance, the rapid and proactive crypto layout of a traditional financial payment unicorn is not an isolated case. For example, PayPal has launched its own stablecoin PYUSD, and Visa continues to explore stablecoins. This all indicates that traditional fintech giants with a deep user base and a large payment network are no longer satisfied with peripheral crypto services; they want to take the lead in crypto payments, which are gradually integrating into mainstream finance.
Garage Startup's Global Payment Unicorn
Stripe's story began in 2010 when Patrick Collison and his brother John Collison founded Stripe with the support of Y Combinator, a well-known startup incubator in Silicon Valley. At that time, online payment integration was extremely cumbersome and complex for developers, requiring multiple parties such as banks, payment gateways, and fraud prevention systems, which consumed a lot of time and resources. The Collison brothers keenly captured this pain point, and their vision was crystal clear: to make online payments as easy as adding a line of code to a web page.
Stripe was born from this, abstracting and standardizing complex financial payment processing through a simple and concise API, encapsulated within just a few lines of code. Developers can quickly integrate credit card payments, subscription charges, and other functionalities into their websites or applications without needing to deeply understand the underlying financial logic. This innovation quickly captured the hearts of many startups and developers in Silicon Valley, becoming an engine for their early rapid growth.
As time goes by, Stripe's business landscape continues to expand, far beyond its original payment processing. It gradually builds a complete "Internet financial operating system," providing businesses with a full suite of online payment processing, subscription billing, fraud prevention, and other financial infrastructure services. Their services support global transactions for companies ranging from Amazon and Google to numerous startups, reportedly serving millions of customers worldwide.
Specifically, in terms of payment processing, it supports cardholders in 195 countries and regions around the world, accepts a variety of payment methods such as mainstream debit and credit cards, digital wallets, local bank debits, local bank transfers, and can process online payment services in more than 135 currencies, helping enterprises simplify the process of global expansion and optimize payment infrastructure. Stripe Billing's subscription and invoicing capabilities help customers build and scale recurring revenue business models, set up recurring invoicing, and manage subscription-related transactions. In addition to this, it also provides card issuance services for businesses, and with Stripe Issuing, businesses can create, distribute, and manage virtual and physical cards to meet different business needs, and more.
The biggest success of Stripe lies in its clearly defined product features, which are highly targeted towards the market customer base and easy to use across platforms. It provides customized payment solutions for small and medium-sized startups, which is enough to pose a significant threat to the payment giant PayPal.
With more than a decade of development, Stripe has seemingly become a unicorn in the payment sector, with a valuation reaching $95 billion in 2021. Behind Stripe are many well-known investment firms. Y Combinator is one of its early seed fund providers. Sequoia Capital is not only an early investor but has also participated in nearly every round of financing. In addition, numerous investment firms such as Founders Fund, Thrive Capital, CapitalG, GV, Allianz X, Axa, Baillie Gifford, Fidelity, and the National Treasury Management Agency of Ireland have participated in Stripe's financing at different stages.
Ambitions have long surpassed traditional payment
Stripe has always been a company willing to try new things, such as launching an AI-based model for payments in 2024. Its involvement in the cryptocurrency industry came much earlier compared to other payment giants.
As early as 2014, it began to attempt to accept Bitcoin payments, being one of the first companies to allow Bitcoin as a form of payment, but it suspended this in 2018.
However, it did not give up on its attention to the blockchain and cryptocurrency fields, but continued to participate in various ways. When the Stellar Foundation was established in 2014, it invested $3 million by purchasing Stellar tokens and discussed with Stellar how to apply its technical system to payment services. In 2024, Stripe reintroduced crypto payments, allowing U.S. businesses to receive and pay USDC, followed by what we know as the acquisition of Bridge and the recent merger with Privy.
The acquisition of the cryptocurrency wallet service provider Privy announced on June 11 aims to integrate its leading "embedded wallet" technology. Privy's technology allows users to easily create and use non-custodial wallets for cryptocurrency payments and interactions within familiar environments such as e-commerce websites and social platforms, without the need to download standalone wallet applications or manage complex private keys. This significantly lowers the entry barrier for ordinary users to access Web3.
These two acquisitions can be said to perfectly complement the core components of Stripe's crypto puzzle. Bridge provides access, management, and settlement infrastructure for stablecoins, while Privy offers a revolutionary embedded wallet experience. Its technology allows for the seamless integration of non-custodial wallets into existing Web2 applications, enabling users to securely manage crypto assets and make payments without leaving the familiar interface. This completely overcomes the biggest obstacle for users entering the crypto world—complex wallet creation, private key management, and poor user experience.
In addition, Stripe already has a global fiat currency entry and exit, a large merchant network, a mature compliance and risk control system, as well as strong payment settlement capabilities.
Once these three parts are perfectly combined, it means that Stripe has the ability to provide a solution for enterprise clients that ranges from issuing or connecting stablecoins, to allowing end-users to easily own and use wallets for payments, and finally processing on-chain transactions and efficiently and compliantly settling them as fiat currency.
For the cryptocurrency industry, leveraging Stripe's enormous influence in the industry will lead to wider adoption of cryptocurrency payments by more merchants.
Stripe's actions indicate that traditional fintech giants with a strong user base and extensive payment networks are no longer satisfied with peripheral services related to cryptocurrency. They are making a strong entry, directly taking control of the core aspects of cryptocurrency payments, such as stablecoin issuance and user wallet access. This is similar to trends like PayPal launching its own stablecoin PYUSD and Visa's ongoing exploration of stablecoins for cross-border settlements. This also suggests that cryptocurrency payments are accelerating their integration into and reshaping mainstream finance.
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Stripe acquires Wallet Privy, accelerating encryption payments into mainstream finance.
Jessy, Jinse Finance
On June 11, global payment giant Stripe announced the acquisition of cryptocurrency wallet service provider Privy, just four months after completing the acquisition of the stablecoin platform Bridge.
Stripe accelerates its layout of stablecoin and crypto payment infrastructure through the acquisition of Privy and Bridge. As the development of crypto compliance continues to advance, the rapid and proactive crypto layout of a traditional financial payment unicorn is not an isolated case. For example, PayPal has launched its own stablecoin PYUSD, and Visa continues to explore stablecoins. This all indicates that traditional fintech giants with a deep user base and a large payment network are no longer satisfied with peripheral crypto services; they want to take the lead in crypto payments, which are gradually integrating into mainstream finance.
Garage Startup's Global Payment Unicorn
Stripe's story began in 2010 when Patrick Collison and his brother John Collison founded Stripe with the support of Y Combinator, a well-known startup incubator in Silicon Valley. At that time, online payment integration was extremely cumbersome and complex for developers, requiring multiple parties such as banks, payment gateways, and fraud prevention systems, which consumed a lot of time and resources. The Collison brothers keenly captured this pain point, and their vision was crystal clear: to make online payments as easy as adding a line of code to a web page.
Stripe was born from this, abstracting and standardizing complex financial payment processing through a simple and concise API, encapsulated within just a few lines of code. Developers can quickly integrate credit card payments, subscription charges, and other functionalities into their websites or applications without needing to deeply understand the underlying financial logic. This innovation quickly captured the hearts of many startups and developers in Silicon Valley, becoming an engine for their early rapid growth.
As time goes by, Stripe's business landscape continues to expand, far beyond its original payment processing. It gradually builds a complete "Internet financial operating system," providing businesses with a full suite of online payment processing, subscription billing, fraud prevention, and other financial infrastructure services. Their services support global transactions for companies ranging from Amazon and Google to numerous startups, reportedly serving millions of customers worldwide.
Specifically, in terms of payment processing, it supports cardholders in 195 countries and regions around the world, accepts a variety of payment methods such as mainstream debit and credit cards, digital wallets, local bank debits, local bank transfers, and can process online payment services in more than 135 currencies, helping enterprises simplify the process of global expansion and optimize payment infrastructure. Stripe Billing's subscription and invoicing capabilities help customers build and scale recurring revenue business models, set up recurring invoicing, and manage subscription-related transactions. In addition to this, it also provides card issuance services for businesses, and with Stripe Issuing, businesses can create, distribute, and manage virtual and physical cards to meet different business needs, and more.
The biggest success of Stripe lies in its clearly defined product features, which are highly targeted towards the market customer base and easy to use across platforms. It provides customized payment solutions for small and medium-sized startups, which is enough to pose a significant threat to the payment giant PayPal.
With more than a decade of development, Stripe has seemingly become a unicorn in the payment sector, with a valuation reaching $95 billion in 2021. Behind Stripe are many well-known investment firms. Y Combinator is one of its early seed fund providers. Sequoia Capital is not only an early investor but has also participated in nearly every round of financing. In addition, numerous investment firms such as Founders Fund, Thrive Capital, CapitalG, GV, Allianz X, Axa, Baillie Gifford, Fidelity, and the National Treasury Management Agency of Ireland have participated in Stripe's financing at different stages.
Ambitions have long surpassed traditional payment
Stripe has always been a company willing to try new things, such as launching an AI-based model for payments in 2024. Its involvement in the cryptocurrency industry came much earlier compared to other payment giants.
As early as 2014, it began to attempt to accept Bitcoin payments, being one of the first companies to allow Bitcoin as a form of payment, but it suspended this in 2018.
However, it did not give up on its attention to the blockchain and cryptocurrency fields, but continued to participate in various ways. When the Stellar Foundation was established in 2014, it invested $3 million by purchasing Stellar tokens and discussed with Stellar how to apply its technical system to payment services. In 2024, Stripe reintroduced crypto payments, allowing U.S. businesses to receive and pay USDC, followed by what we know as the acquisition of Bridge and the recent merger with Privy.
The acquisition of the cryptocurrency wallet service provider Privy announced on June 11 aims to integrate its leading "embedded wallet" technology. Privy's technology allows users to easily create and use non-custodial wallets for cryptocurrency payments and interactions within familiar environments such as e-commerce websites and social platforms, without the need to download standalone wallet applications or manage complex private keys. This significantly lowers the entry barrier for ordinary users to access Web3.
These two acquisitions can be said to perfectly complement the core components of Stripe's crypto puzzle. Bridge provides access, management, and settlement infrastructure for stablecoins, while Privy offers a revolutionary embedded wallet experience. Its technology allows for the seamless integration of non-custodial wallets into existing Web2 applications, enabling users to securely manage crypto assets and make payments without leaving the familiar interface. This completely overcomes the biggest obstacle for users entering the crypto world—complex wallet creation, private key management, and poor user experience.
In addition, Stripe already has a global fiat currency entry and exit, a large merchant network, a mature compliance and risk control system, as well as strong payment settlement capabilities.
Once these three parts are perfectly combined, it means that Stripe has the ability to provide a solution for enterprise clients that ranges from issuing or connecting stablecoins, to allowing end-users to easily own and use wallets for payments, and finally processing on-chain transactions and efficiently and compliantly settling them as fiat currency.
For the cryptocurrency industry, leveraging Stripe's enormous influence in the industry will lead to wider adoption of cryptocurrency payments by more merchants.
Stripe's actions indicate that traditional fintech giants with a strong user base and extensive payment networks are no longer satisfied with peripheral services related to cryptocurrency. They are making a strong entry, directly taking control of the core aspects of cryptocurrency payments, such as stablecoin issuance and user wallet access. This is similar to trends like PayPal launching its own stablecoin PYUSD and Visa's ongoing exploration of stablecoins for cross-border settlements. This also suggests that cryptocurrency payments are accelerating their integration into and reshaping mainstream finance.