Stripe is in talks to acquire stablecoin platform Bridge for a whopping $1 billion, according to Forbes. The talks are reportedly in advanced stages, although nothing has been finalized.
Bridge, cofounded by Coinbase alumni Zach Abrams and Sean Yu, has built an API that helps companies accept stablecoins. The pair raised $58 million from investors like Index Ventures and Sequoia Capital, according to PitchBook. If the deal with Stripe goes through, it would be a huge jump from Bridge’s $200 million valuation, as well as being Stripe’s largest acquisition to date.
Stripe has made it clear that crypto is a huge priority for the company. In July, it enabled crypto purchases in the EU, and earlier this month, Stripe announced a Pay with Crypto feature that lets merchants accept stablecoins.
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On Thursday, Apple celebrated 10 years with Apple Pay and announced how the service will evolve in the future, including the future addition of redeeming rewards and expanding installment loan options. In addition to Apple Pay’s newly added support for loan options from Affirm in the U.S., and Monzo Flex in the U.K., the iPhone maker shared that starting today, support for Klarna will go live in the two countries including both at checkout online and in-app with Apple Pay.
Further down the road, the company says it will expand access to installment loan options to include those from eligible credit or debit cards, including those from Citi and Synchrony in the U.S. and other participating issuers with Fiserv. Outside the U.S., these options will also include ANZ in Australia, DBS in Singapore, CaixaBank in Spain, and, in the U.K., HSBC, NewDay, and Zilch — some of which had been announced previously.
Klarna will be rolled out to Canada at some point in the future, as well, the company said.
These installment loan options follow Apple’s surprising decision to roll back its plans for Apple Pay Later, its own “buy now, pay later” service. In June, Apple said it was killing the option that had first launched in late March 2023. Instead, Apple said it would work in partnerships with Apple Pay-enabled banks and lenders to offer this service. The decision allows Apple to ensure banking partners stay connected with Apple Pay, as it becomes a new source for installment loans, instead of seeing Apple compete with them directly.
In an announcement on Apple’s newsroom, Jennifer Bailey, Apple’s vice president of Apple Pay and Apple Wallet, suggested that the addition of loan providers was only the start of further changes for Apple’s payment service and Wallet. She noted the company would later give consumers “the option to redeem rewards,” which Apple Pay-enabled issuers and lenders could use to better connect with their customers.
More broadly, she said the company’s larger goal with Apple Wallet is to replace users’ physical wallets entirely, something it’s been working on with the app’s support for things like event tickets, transit cards, keys, and government IDs. However, the adoption of digital IDs today varies by state, with California, Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Hawaii, Maryland, and Ohio now supporting digital driver’s licenses and state IDs, while others only have support on the roadmap, or not at all.
Apple also shared some stats about Apple Pay’s adoption after its 10-year history, noting it’s now used by millions of consumers across 78 markets, on millions of websites and apps, and in tens of millions of stores worldwide. More than 11,000 bank and network partners support the payment technology, too.
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India’s central bank ordered four non-bank lenders, including Navi Finserv and DMI Finance, to halt loans from October 21, citing excessive interest rates and regulatory breaches.
The Reserve Bank of India said (PDF) the firms violated rules on pricing, income assessment, and asset classification. This action follows months of warnings about responsible lending practices, it added. The affected companies can continue servicing existing customers but must implement remedial measures to resume new lending.
Many startups and large tech firms, including Google, work with DMI Finance to extend loans to their customers.
The news is also the latest setback for Navi, a Bengaluru-based startup founded by Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal. The central bank earlier rejected Navi’s application for a banking license.
The new order comes at a time when Navi has been in talks with investors to raise its maiden external funding, TechCrunch earlier reported.
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