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Stripe and Advent Make $53 Billion Bid for PayPal

Stripe and Advent want to buy PayPal for $53 billion, with a focus on payment infrastructure and stablecoins. A combination of Bridge and PYUSD could reshape the sector even further.

By Zenz van der Wielen
• 2 min read
Stripe and Advent Make $53 Billion Bid for PayPal

Key Takeaways

  • Stripe and Advent International have made a joint bid of about $53 billion for PayPal.
  • The $60.50 per share offer is 28 percent above Tuesday’s closing price, and PayPal has not responded yet.
  • For crypto, the deal matters because it brings together Stripe’s stablecoin infrastructure and PayPal’s PYUSD.

Stripe and private equity firm Advent International have put forward a joint offer for PayPal valued at roughly $53 billion (€46.5 billion). The bid comes in at $60.50 (€53) per share, or 28 percent above Tuesday’s close. PayPal has not said anything publicly yet.

Bid for an Old Payments Rival

The proposal lands amid a broader surge in dealmaking across financial services. Stripe, which was founded in 2010 and is often viewed as a crypto-adjacent company because of its internet payment infrastructure, is now trying to buy one of its longest-standing rivals with Advent. Advent, meanwhile, is a large private equity firm with tens of billions in assets under management and a track record of investing in payment companies in Europe.

The filing says the bid was submitted earlier this month, following an initial approach in April. The deal would be financed with about $50 billion (€43.8 billion) in committed bank loans. Under the plan, PayPal would remain a standalone business, while Stripe and Advent would each end up with an equal ownership stake.

Stablecoin Puzzle for the Sector

The potential transaction also matters for crypto because Stripe already has a strong foothold in dollar-token infrastructure through Bridge. Stripe bought Bridge in 2025 for $1.1 billion (€1 billion), and the platform allows companies to issue their own dollar-backed tokens instead of launching a consumer-facing coin.

PayPal brings its own piece of the puzzle with PYUSD, its stablecoin, which already has broad consumer reach and a market cap of nearly $2.9 billion (€2.5 billion). If those two businesses ended up under the same owner, it would combine issuance infrastructure with end-user distribution, a pairing that is becoming increasingly important in the stablecoin market.

What This Could Mean

For European crypto readers, the main point is that traditional payment firms and stablecoin infrastructure are moving closer together. That is happening as global merger and acquisition activity picks up sharply, underscoring how payment networks are once again being treated as valuable investment targets. For now, it is still unclear whether PayPal will accept the offer.

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