Stripe’s $1.1B purchase of Bridge is the #1 crypto acquisition of all time (based on exit valuation).
90x revenue multiple
Stripe announced it would acquire the stablecoin payments platform in October.
Bridge, which was just 2.5 years old, had raised $58M prior to the acquisition.
With ~$12M in revenue, the deal represents a lofty 90x multiple.
It’s also Stripe’s biggest reported acquisition ever and third M&A deal this year after being relatively quiet on the acquisition front the last 2 years.
Stripe’s strategic shift
The acquisition also marks a strategic shift for Stripe.
Back in 2018, Stripe hit pause on bitcoin payments, due to slow transaction times and high fees.
Then in April 2024, it announced merchants would be able to accept stablecoin payments on its platform. That kicked off earlier in October, and was followed by its purchase of Bridge.
It’s a big vote of confidence for stablecoins.
Stablecoins are designed to have a value that is much more fixed than normal cryptocurrencies by being pegged to other assets like the US dollar.
Stablecoins are less volatile than other cryptocurrencies, making them more suitable for applications like cross-border payments and even everyday transactions.
Why now?
Transaction costs for stablecoins have dropped to as little as less than a cent, thanks to Ethereum scaling efforts which have reduced “traffic jams.”
Stablecoin transaction volumes (excluding bot activity) are up nearly 8x in the last 4 years — from $62B in October 2020 to $481B in October 2024 — per Visa data.
Here's a roundup of our favorite recent tech drama:
outlAWS: Over 500 Amazon employees sent a letter to AWS CEO Matt Garman asking to ditch the five-day return-to-office policy set for 2025. Earlier in the month, Garman suggested that employees could go work somewhere else if they wanted to stay remote: “there are other companies around.” Do these strongly worded letters ever work?
WordPressed: Back in September, Automattic CEO and WordPress creator Matt Mullenweg called WP Engine a “cancer” to WordPress, accusing it of freeloading and confusing customers about the WordPress brand. The ongoing drama has led 159 Automattic employees to take severance. Now Mullenweg says Automattic is “very short-staffed.” It’s unclear why this has persisted so long. And also, can we just end this drama?
San Francisco Bay Blues: Peter Kazanjy opened up a conversation about sales performance on X this weekend about what he called the entitlement of Bay Area sales talent. Kazanjy (and other commenters) claimed that companies across Silicon Valley are turning away from local Bay Area recruits, and toward presumably more grounded folks in the Midwest, Mountain West, South, and Northeast. It’s good to see the Northeast not in the entitled group.
The simple life: Dropbox CEO Drew Houston announced layoffs for 500 employees, taking “full accountability.” Laid-off workers get severance, stock vesting, and their work laptops. At the same time, Dropbox's growth has stagnated and stock has dipped. Dropbox is scrambling to keep up with tech giants by doubling down on AI to stay in the game.
An apple a day: Apple privately warned TikTok its content wasn’t suitable for kids under 17, urging a rating change from 12+ to 17+. South Carolina’s lawsuit, which unintentionally revealed these talks, claims TikTok misleads users by downplaying mature content, like profanity and suggestive material. South Carolina filed the complaint to address what it sees as TikTok’s deceptive practices around child safety.
P’no: Instagram-famous P’nut the squirrel (along with a raccoon named Fred) was seized from its owner’s home and euthanized by New York State authorities to test for rabies, igniting a firestorm on social media. Tech twitter also weighed in cuz tech twitter weighs in on everything.
Calendar flex: VC Seth Bannon took to X to post a snapshot of his stocked G-Cal. The 48 meetings included a number of “Lunch Holds” and travel to and from venues. If it was bragging rights the Fifty Years founder was after, the comments section had other ideas. Pic below.
