Stripe in Early Talks to Acquire PayPal for ₱9.18 trillion ($159 billion)
Stripe is exploring an acquisition of PayPal that would merge the company's Bridge stablecoin infrastructure with PayPal's PYUSD consumer products, according to Bloomberg.
Key Takeaway
Stripe buying PayPal would merge two stablecoin giants—but integrating their tech stacks is the real test.
Stripe is in early talks to acquire PayPal, according to Bloomberg. The discussions are exploratory and no formal offer has been made.
Stripe posted ₱109.71 trillion ($1.9 trillion) in annual payment volume on Tuesday, the same day Bloomberg broke the story. The company's valuation stands at ₱9.18 trillion ($159 billion) based on its most recent employee tender offer.
Tiger Research Senior Analyst Ryan Yoon said the deal offers PayPal an exit from public market scrutiny and Big Tech competition, while giving Stripe immediate access to massive enterprise liquidity. The combined entity would merge stablecoin and on-ramp infrastructure, which could unify fragmented digital asset payments.
PayPal's crypto strategy has focused on consumer-facing products—digital asset trading in its app and PYUSD integration into its wallet and checkout. Stripe has taken the opposite route, building enterprise infrastructure through merchant stablecoin support, digital asset on-ramps, and strategic wallet acquisitions. Stripe's Bridge subsidiary recently secured approval for a U.S. national bank trust charter, and the company launched Tempo, a purpose-built blockchain for stablecoin settlement and programmable payments.
Yoon cautioned that integrating two different technical debts remains a major constraint. He called the deal a vertical integration of legacy infrastructure and modern API stacks. Stripe's founders have called the current regulatory environment a "stablecoin summer" following the GENIUS Act, which established a stablecoin framework. The SEC dropped its probe into PYUSD in April 2025 without enforcement action.
Stripe declined to comment. PayPal did not respond to requests for comment by publication time on February 25, 2026.
This article was written based on reporting from Decrypt.
