What Exactly Is Bridge, Which Stripe Acquired for $1.1 Billion?
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What Exactly Is Bridge, Which Stripe Acquired for $1.1 Billion?
In Bridge's view, stablecoins will serve as a global payment rail, enabling businesses and developers to seamlessly integrate stablecoin payments while supporting convenient transfers between fiat currencies and stablecoins.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsOctober 21 update: According to TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington, "payment giant Stripe has acquired stablecoin platform Bridge for $1.1 billion." The Block stated, "Bridge is Stripe’s largest acquisition to date and the biggest acquisition in Web3 history." In October, Stripe officially launched and began supporting USDC payments, accepting stablecoin payments from over 150 countries, allowing buyers to pay in USDC from Ethereum, Solana, and Polygon blockchains.
This article was originally published on August 30, 2024, with the original title: "Raised $58 Million, How Is Bridge Building a Web3 Version of Stripe?"
Author: Karen, Foresight News
This week, Bridge announced it has raised $58 million in funding, backed by investors including Sequoia Capital, Ribbit Capital, Index Ventures, Haun Ventures, and 1confirmation.
In fact, Bridge has been under development for over two years. Both co-founders of Bridge have strong backgrounds at Coinbase and other prominent fintech companies. CEO Zach Abrams previously served as Chief Product Officer at fintech firm Brex, Head of Consumers at Coinbase, and General Manager at Square. CTO Sean Yu held senior engineering or engineering management roles at Airbnb, Coinbase, DoorDash, and Square.
Notably, according to TechCrunch, the two founders had already co-founded P2P payment platform Evenly back in 2012, which aimed to simplify peer-to-peer payments among friends for splitting bills and other expenses. The following year, Evenly was acquired by Square, further validating their innovation and capabilities in the payments space.
Bridge—The Web3 Version of Stripe
Bridge can be seen as a Web3 version of Stripe, offering simple and user-friendly APIs that help businesses easily overcome barriers to stablecoin adoption, making stablecoin transfers and receipts more convenient and cost-effective. Whether integrating stablecoin payments, helping enterprises issue their own stablecoins, or enabling efficient cross-border fund transfers, Bridge provides comprehensive support and solutions.
Bridge's Orchestration API and Issuance API deliver a streamlined experience for enterprises and developers. The former enables businesses to seamlessly integrate stablecoin payments, while Bridge handles all regulatory, compliance, and technical complexities. The latter allows companies to quickly launch their own stablecoins within minutes, settling transactions in their branded stablecoin while accepting USD, EUR, USDC, USDT, or any other stablecoin, with reserves investable in U.S. Treasuries to generate yield.
Bridge claims its API enables fund transfers anywhere in the world within minutes, allowing seamless stablecoin payments, conversion of local fiat into stablecoins, and provision of USD and EUR accounts for global consumers and businesses, enabling customers to save and spend in USD and EUR.
Bridge Has Processed Over $5 Billion in Annual Payment Volume
Bridge has attracted numerous clients, including SpaceX. According to Fortune magazine, SpaceX uses Bridge to collect payments in various currencies across different jurisdictions and transfer them via stablecoins into its global treasury. Bridge has also partnered with crypto firms such as blockchain network Stellar and Bitcoin payment app Strike, providing infrastructure for their own stablecoin payment features. Additionally, Coinbase has adopted Bridge’s services to enable transfers between Tether on Tron and USDC on Base. Statistics show that Bridge has processed over $5 billion in annualized payment volume.
@TTx0x revealed that in recent weeks he spoke with 25 to 30 crypto payment companies, finding that most are either already using or planning to adopt Bridge’s services.
On compliance, Bridge has obtained operating licenses in multiple regions globally. Fortune reported that Bridge currently holds licenses in 48 U.S. states and a VASP license in Poland, with additional licensing applications underway in New York, Europe, and other areas. According to Conviction, in regions where Bridge is not yet directly compliant, it expands service coverage through partnerships—for example, collaborating with Bitso for B2B payments in Latin America.
Looking ahead, whether Bridge can lead transformative change in the stablecoin payments sector and bring new possibilities and vitality to financial flows—including in regions like Africa—remains to be seen, and we will continue to monitor developments closely.
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