Fintech giant Stripe circles possible PayPal acquisition: Bloomberg

Stripe, the payment processor that has increasingly leaned into crypto, is interested in acquiring all or part of PayPal, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.

The private company "has expressed preliminary interest in a potential acquisition of the digital payments pioneer or its assets," the report said, citing anonymous sources.

Stripe said Tuesday it has signed agreements with investors to provide liquidity to current and former Stripe employees through a tender offer at a $159 billion valuation. Investors, including Thrive Capital, Coatue, and a16z, will provide the majority of funds for the tender offer. Stripe would also utilize some of its own capital to repurchase shares.

Trailblazing early online payments starting in the 1990s, PayPal is considered a pioneer in facilitating financial transactions over the internet and normalizing digital wallets. PayPal has tried to remain relevant amid the digital asset boom, but has at times struggled to carve out meaningful market share amid stiff competition from new entrants like Stripe.

Stripe declined to comment on the news.

Both PayPal and Stripe have demonstrated an interest in crypto, specifically stablecoins. Stripe acquired the stablecoin platform Bridge last year, which received conditional approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to later become a federally chartered national bank.

PayPal launched its PYUSD stablecoin in 2023 through a partnership with Paxos. In December, Paxos received a federal banking charter from the OCC. At the time, Paxos said "PYUSD is now officially the largest dollar stablecoin issued under federal regulatory oversight," with a market capitalization of $3.8 billion.

Nearly 85% of PayPal survey respondents recently said they expect cryptocurrency payments to become commonplace within the next five years. The fintech announced last year it would introduce a new peer-to-peer payments feature with plans to expand support to bitcoin, ETH, and stablecoin transactions.

PayPal's stock (PYPL) spike Monday amid initial reports that it was attracting takeover interest and spiked again on Tuesday's report. Shares are down nearly 40% over the past year.