Stripe is not just bidding on any payments company. The fintech giant, alongside private equity firm Advent International, has reportedly submitted a joint bid to acquire PayPal for more than $53 billion - and the way they plan to split ownership is what is turning heads most.
According to a Reuters report, the proposed offer stands at $60.50 per PayPal share, representing an approximate 28% premium over PayPal’s Tuesday closing price. Around $50 billion in bank financing has reportedly already been committed to back a transaction of this scale.
Not Split in Two, but Jointly Owned
Typically, when two different players - a tech company and an investment firm - team up to acquire a target as large as PayPal, the standard playbook is to break the company into two separate businesses. Not here. The proposed structure would see Stripe and Advent hold equal stakes in PayPal, keeping it intact as a single entity.
The bid was submitted in early July 2026, following preliminary approaches made in April. The bidding consortium is reportedly pushing to finalize the deal before the end of July, though detailed negotiations and potential regulatory scrutiny remain ahead. PayPal, Stripe, and Advent all declined to comment, and Reuters sources emphasized there is no certainty a deal will materialize.
Why There Is a Scramble for PayPal
The $53 billion valuation sits well below PayPal’s peak market cap in 2021. The company currently faces fierce competition across checkout, digital wallets, and alternative payment methods. New CEO Enrique Lores, who took the helm in March 2026, has already begun restructuring the business into three units: checkout, Venmo, and payments & crypto. In the first quarter of 2026, PayPal’s revenue still grew 7% year-on-year to $8.35 billion, with payment volume rising 8% to roughly $464 billion.
What makes this story resonate across the crypto world is the stablecoin angle. PayPal has PYUSD, a dollar-backed stablecoin issued by Paxos that recently expanded natively to the Polygon network via the Open Money Stack. Across the table, Stripe has aggressively expanded into stablecoin infrastructure through its roughly $1.1 billion acquisition of Bridge. Interestingly, Stripe was valued at $159 billion in a February 2026 employee tender offer - significantly higher than the valuation bid it is now putting forward for PayPal.
A Signal of Broader Consolidation
This development comes right amid a wave of consolidation in the global payments sector, driven by stablecoin expansion from Stripe, PayPal, Visa, Mastercard, and other major players. If this bid actually succeeds, it will not just be about who owns PayPal, but who controls next-generation payment rails - rails that are increasingly being built on top of stablecoins. For now, the story remains high-stakes corporate speculation to watch closely, with the next move resting in the hands of PayPal’s board of directors.
Reported via crypto.news.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational and educational purposes only, not financial advice. Cryptocurrency assets are highly volatile and carry significant risk. Always do your own research (DYOR) and never invest more than you can afford to lose.
