stripe

Bitcoin.com published an article stating that the model of Web3 startups conducting corporate pilots by paying traditional financial institutions "is a dead end," with 95% of pilot projects failing to reach production environments. Web2 companies only want the idle venture capital and revenue sharing from startups, rather than their open-source innovations. The article argues that true defensiveness comes from a "structural moat"—compliance licenses, deep network liquidity, or distribution lock-ins that Web2 engineering teams cannot replicate.The article cites recent cases: Stripe was acquired for $1.1 billion after proving an annual cross-border transaction volume of $5 billion with Bridge, and Robinhood acquired Bitstamp for $200 million to gain 50 global regulatory licenses and institutional liquidity, rather than maintaining long-term vendor relationships. The article predicts that the next round of B2C expansion will present an 80/20 pattern: 80% of retail liquidity will be controlled by 3 to 5 Web2/fintech giants such as Visa, Stripe, Robinhood, PayPal, and BlackRock, providing compliance and fiat entry; 20% will be an unlicensed DeFi sandbox for validating initial product-market fit. The growth path for startups should be to first validate PMF in the DeFi sandbox, then integrate or sell to the few Web2 gateways controlling the 80% distribution layer. The article believes that the current protocol cancellations and wave of startup closures are part of a "necessary market cleanup."

According to Cointelegraph, Bridge, a stablecoin infrastructure company under Stripe, has officially joined the EU Crypto Asset Market Regulation (MiCA) registry through its Luxembourg entity, Bridge Building. Previously, Bridge obtained authorization as a Crypto Asset Service Provider (CASP) under the MiCA framework and received an Electronic Money Institution (EMI) license from the Luxembourg Financial Supervisory Authority (CSSF) on July 2.Mai Leduc Blount, Head of Products at Bridge, stated that the aforementioned approvals will allow EU businesses to build stablecoins and payment products within a compliant framework. According to the latest update from the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), Bridge's inclusion increases the total number of EU-authorized Electronic Money Token (EMT) issuers to 42; during the same period, three institutions from Germany newly obtained CASP authorization, raising the total number of EU-authorized CASPs to 324.

According to The Information, fintech company Stripe is in exclusive acquisition talks with AI model aggregation platform OpenRouter, with a deal valuation of approximately $10 billion. Sources reveal that OpenRouter had previously received acquisition interest from several large tech companies, but Stripe has now entered exclusive negotiation stages. The related deal has not yet been finalized, and specific terms may still change.OpenRouter was founded in 2023 and is positioned as an AI infrastructure platform that connects users with various large language models, allowing developers to call AI models from companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google through a unified interface, and choose different models based on performance, price, and availability. As enterprises accelerate the adoption of generative AI, the importance of AI model calling infrastructure and model routing services continues to rise. OpenRouter has become a key intermediary in the AI application development ecosystem by providing model aggregation, traffic allocation, and cost optimization capabilities.If the deal is completed, it will become one of Stripe's significant moves in the AI field in recent years. Stripe has primarily focused on payment infrastructure, financial services, and enterprise software, and acquiring OpenRouter may further drive its expansion into the AI developer infrastructure space. Market participants believe that as the number of AI models rapidly increases, infrastructure companies that connect different models, optimize calling costs, and manage AI workflows are gaining more attention, and OpenRouter's potential high valuation also reflects investors' optimism about growth opportunities in the AI application layer and infrastructure layer.

Connor Fitzgerald, the head of partnerships at payment company Stripe, tweeted that he has stepped down this week.During his tenure, Connor Fitzgerald facilitated partnerships between Stripe and companies like Visa, supporting wallet/fintech companies in issuing Visa cards backed by stablecoins.

According to informed sources, Stripe is in talks to acquire OpenRouter. OpenRouter is a popular startup dedicated to helping developers choose between various artificial intelligence models. The sources indicated that the deal could be announced soon, but there is also a possibility of negotiations breaking down or other bidders emerging. It is currently unclear what the specific negotiation price is, but reports suggest that the company's sale valuation could be around $10 billion. The sources added that several large tech companies had previously shown interest in acquiring OpenRouter. Founded in 2023, OpenRouter sells software that allows customers easy access to AI models developed by OpenAI and Anthropic, as well as "open-weight" models that anyone can download and run for free. Acquiring OpenRouter would enable Stripe to capitalize on a hot growth area in the AI market.

According to a report by Reuters, informed sources revealed that the PayPal board believes the $53 billion acquisition offer from competitor Stripe and Advent International undervalues the company and faces regulatory and financing hurdles. The sources stated that PayPal has not formally responded yet, and the board is evaluating the trade-offs between the offer and the management's strategy to turn around the company, initially considering that the offer of $60.5 per share, while a premium over recent stock prices, does not fully reflect the company's future potential.The acquirers have secured approximately $50 billion in financing commitments from JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley, along with $17 billion in equity raised by Stripe and Advent, to support the $53 billion acquisition offer. If antitrust regulations are violated, the acquirers have considered remedies such as divesting the Braintree business to Advent. Block was initially involved but withdrew before the latest offer submission. Investors will be paying attention to PayPal's earnings report on July 28.

According to BBX data, the integration of traditional financial infrastructure and cryptocurrency settlement layers accelerated simultaneously in two distinctly different tracks yesterday, with the following core dynamics:PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: $PYPL) reported by CoinDesk today as the headline news, the world's largest independent payment technology company Stripe (privately held) has teamed up with private equity firm Advent International to propose an acquisition offer of approximately $53 billion to PayPal; PayPal is currently reluctant to engage actively, but the offer has sparked widespread discussion on Wall Street about the "largest payment merger in the world." Stripe acquired the stablecoin infrastructure company Bridge.xyz for $1.1 billion in 2024 (which has served cross-border stablecoin settlements for institutions such as Visa and Coinbase), while PayPal has its own stablecoin PYUSD (with a circulation size of about $700 million) and independent cryptocurrency trading capabilities, covering over 400 million active accounts. If the acquisition is completed, the combination of Stripe + PayPal will control the largest single payment network globally, while integrating Stripe's stablecoin settlement (Bridge.xyz) with PayPal's native stablecoin (PYUSD)------the combination will create the largest-scale "traditional payment + stablecoin" dual-track infrastructure to date, directly threatening Visa and Mastercard's positions in cross-border settlement scenarios and posing competitive pressure on Circle's USDC in retail payments.HSBC Holdings plc (NYSE: $HSBC) reported by CoinDesk today, the UK government plans to issue the world's first digital sovereign bond for G7 countries, with the issuance scheduled for early 2027; this bond will be issued and circulated on HSBC's blockchain bond platform Orion, operating within the Digital Securities Sandbox framework of the Bank of England (BoE) and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), aimed at testing the feasibility of reducing settlement time (transitioning from T+2 to T+0) and lowering back-office costs. HSBC Orion has completed multiple batches of tokenized gold, green bonds, and Hong Kong government bonds on-chain issuance from 2023 to 2025, and this UK sovereign bond is the first instance of G7 countries introducing blockchain settlement at the sovereign debt issuance level------this milestone will elevate the compliance of tokenized government bonds from "emerging market experiment" to "highest sovereign endorsement," signaling significant implications for institutional adoption of tokenized government bond products like BlackRock BUIDL and Securitize.

According to a report by Reuters, payment company Stripe, in conjunction with private equity firm Advent International, has made a takeover offer to PayPal Holdings (PYPL.O), offering $60.5 per share, with a total valuation of over $53 billion, representing a premium of about 28% over PayPal's closing price on Tuesday. The offer has received approximately $50 billion in bank commitment financing support, with both parties intending to hold 50% equity each, without splitting the company.The acquisition proposal was submitted earlier this month, following preliminary contact between the two parties in early April. No response has yet been received from PayPal, and Stripe and Advent hope to reach an agreement by the end of the month. There remains uncertainty as to whether the deal will ultimately be finalized.

Gate US officially launched the Gate Card, collaborating with Visa, Stripe, and its stablecoin infrastructure company Bridge to create a new generation of digital payment products for U.S. users. The card is issued by Lead Bank (a member bank of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, FDIC) under a Visa license, supporting eligible stablecoins (such as USDC) as a source of funds for consumption, and enabling payments through the Visa global merchant network.The Gate Card offers both virtual and physical card options, supporting Apple Pay, Google Wallet, NFC contactless payments, and ATM withdrawals. Stablecoin exchange and fund settlement are supported by Bridge's infrastructure, and eligible purchases can earn points, which can be redeemed for USDT within the Gate US App.Gate US stated that the launch of the Gate Card further promotes the application of stablecoins in real-world consumption scenarios. In the future, the company will continue to collaborate with partners such as Visa and Stripe to expand the application scenarios of digital assets in global payment and financial services.

According to CoinDesk, global payment networks Stripe, Visa, and Mastercard are preparing to launch a new stablecoin platform. Sources reveal that cryptocurrency exchange Binance is also exploring the possibility of participating in this stablecoin platform.Currently, Coinbase, Stripe, and Visa have all declined to comment, and Mastercard did not respond to comment requests before publication. In addition, the revenue-sharing agreement between Coinbase and Circle Internet is set to renew in August this year, with the current market capitalization of USDC reaching 76 billion dollars.