Stripe is an online payment provider that provides solutions for institutional companies. It is one of the most highly valued unicorns in the United States.
enterprise AI company Clay has announced the completion of a $115 million Series D funding round, led by Wellington, with participation from Sequoia Capital, StepStone, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Perennial, Meritech, DST, CapitalG, and others. The post-money valuation has risen to $7.1 billion.Clay stated that its AI agents can build real-time business and customer profiles based on internal and external data such as CRM, and automatically construct and execute workflows according to enterprise goals. Currently, companies including Anthropic, Google, OpenAI, and Stripe have adopted its products. (Reuters)
According to Fortune, stablecoin payment infrastructure company Latitude, founded by former employees of Stripe, Uber, Coinbase, and Meta, has announced the completion of a $35 million Series A funding round, led by Oak HC/FT, with participation from NEA, Coinbase, Lightspeed Faction, and OpenFX. Latitude aims to address the "last mile" challenge following cross-border stablecoin payments by providing enterprises with infrastructure that converts stablecoins into local currencies and facilitates fund disbursement through local payment methods such as bank accounts and mobile wallets. Its current clients span digital banks, payroll platforms, e-commerce marketplaces, and financial institutions. The company previously closed an $8 million seed round. The new capital will be used to scale its compliance, engineering, legal, and sales teams, while accelerating efforts to secure regulatory licenses in markets including Southeast Asia, Latin America, and Africa.
Odaily News, according to people familiar with the matter, Stripe has finalized a deal to acquire AI model aggregation platform OpenRouter for more than $7 billion, though the final transaction price could still change. Notably, OpenRouter raised funds at a $1.3 billion valuation just a few months ago. People familiar with the matter said the final acquisition price could still change. A Stripe spokesperson said the company does not comment on rumors or speculation, while OpenRouter declined to comment.The Wall Street Journal previously reported that Stripe was in talks to acquire OpenRouter for approximately $10 billion. (Bloomberg)
Odaily News: Payment company Stripe did not sign long-term supplier contracts with third-party stablecoin APIs. Instead, after Bridge achieved $5 billion in annualized cross-border transaction volume, Stripe acquired it outright for $1.1 billion and integrated stablecoin infrastructure into its global checkout layer. Fintech platform Robinhood did not expand internationally through external trading venues. Instead, it acquired cryptocurrency exchange Bitstamp for $200 million, obtaining more than 50 global regulatory licenses and institutional liquidity. From 2012 to 2018, early B2B fintech startups paid traditional banks for proof-of-concept pilot fees. From 1996 to 2001, telecom infrastructure startups raised over $50 billion to lay dark fiber. (Bitcoin.com News)
Odaily News The inside story behind stablecoin infrastructure company BVNK's acquisition by Mastercard for $1.8 billion has recently come to light. According to Concentric, an early investor in BVNK, during the bidding process, US crypto exchange Coinbase once held an advantageous position and reportedly submitted a bid as high as $2.5 billion, but ultimately withdrew from the competition due to insufficient strategic and cultural alignment between the two parties.Kjartan Rist, founding partner of Concentric, stated that BVNK's founding team did not focus solely on the offer price when selecting an acquirer, but placed greater emphasis on long-term partnership and corporate culture fit. "Coinbase may have offered a higher price, but the chemistry between the two sides was not ideal." In contrast, Mastercard, as a traditional financial services company, is more likely to create synergies with BVNK in payment infrastructure and stablecoin applications.It is understood that Mastercard participated in acquisition discussions with BVNK at an early stage, and after Coinbase failed to advance the deal, Mastercard re-emerged as the primary buyer, ultimately completing the acquisition for $1.8 billion.Visa also participated in the competition. Having previously invested in BVNK and holding a board observer seat, Visa once had an advantage. However, Visa ultimately chose not to pursue a direct acquisition, instead adopting an open strategy of partnering with multiple stablecoin companies.Founded in 2018, BVNK provides enterprises with stablecoin payment, cross-border settlement, and treasury management infrastructure. Its early investor Concentric invested in the company at a valuation of $4 million in 2019, and this transaction has generated substantial returns.The acquisition also reflects a new round of competition between traditional payment giants and crypto companies over stablecoin infrastructure. Previously, Stripe acquired stablecoin infrastructure company Bridge for $1.1 billion, prompting payment giants such as Visa and Mastercard to accelerate their expansion into the stablecoin sector.Currently, the global stablecoin market size has approached $300 billion. As enterprise payments, cross-border settlements, and treasury management use cases grow rapidly, stablecoin infrastructure is becoming a critical gateway for traditional financial institutions to capture. (CoinDesk)
: Fintech company Stripe is in exclusive acquisition negotiations with AI model aggregation platform OpenRouter, with a transaction valuation of approximately $10 billion. If completed, this would become one of Stripe's significant moves in the AI sector in recent years. Stripe has primarily focused on payment infrastructure, financial services, and enterprise software, and acquiring OpenRouter could further drive its expansion into AI developer infrastructure.According to sources familiar with the matter, OpenRouter has previously received acquisition interest from multiple major tech companies, but Stripe has now entered the exclusive negotiation phase. The deal has not been finalized yet, and specific terms may still change. Founded in 2023, OpenRouter positions itself as an AI infrastructure platform connecting users with various large language models, allowing developers to access AI models from companies such as OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google through a unified interface, and select different models based on performance, price, and availability. (The Information)
According to Fortune, stablecoin payment infrastructure company Latitude, founded by former employees of Stripe, Uber, Coinbase, and Meta, has announced the completion of a $35 million Series A funding round, led by Oak HC/FT, with participation from NEA, Coinbase, Lightspeed Faction, and OpenFX. Latitude aims to address the "last mile" challenge following cross-border stablecoin payments by providing enterprises with infrastructure that converts stablecoins into local currencies and facilitates fund disbursement through local payment methods such as bank accounts and mobile wallets. Its current clients span digital banks, payroll platforms, e-commerce marketplaces, and financial institutions. The company previously closed an $8 million seed round. The new capital will be used to scale its compliance, engineering, legal, and sales teams, while accelerating efforts to secure regulatory licenses in markets including Southeast Asia, Latin America, and Africa.
Odaily News The digital euro, issued by the European Central Bank (ECB) and representing public money, is still in the development stage; EURR, on the other hand, is a stablecoin issued by a private institution designed to maintain a value of 1 euro. Both are aimed at meeting the demand for instant fund transfers within digital platforms.Fintech company Revolut has begun a phased rollout of its euro stablecoin EURR to eligible users in Denmark, Poland, and Portugal, with plans to expand to the European Economic Area in the future. EURR is deployed on the Ethereum network and can be used for on-chain transfers between fiat currencies, crypto assets, external wallets, and supported blockchain networks.EURR is issued by Bridge Building, a Stripe-owned company, rather than directly by Revolut. Piero Cipollone, a member of the ECB's Executive Board, stated that the digital euro will offer the highest level of privacy supported by current technology, with offline payments visible only to the payer and payee, while in online transactions, participating banks will still have access to information required for anti-money laundering compliance. (Forbes Digital Assets)
As reported by Fortune, Grayscale CEO Peter Mintzberg authored an article stating that Bitcoin rallied nearly 20% last week, recording its strongest three-day gains since 2023 as the crypto winter slowly thaws. However, he cautioned that market participants remain overly focused on short-term price fluctuations, overlooking the long-term structural growth of digital assets. Mintzberg highlighted two key drivers: first, sustained expansion in institutional demand. In 2025, the daily average capital inflow into spot Bitcoin ETPs exceeded $500 million, roughly 12 times the daily new supply from miners. Additionally, a 2026 EY survey revealed that 73% of institutional investors plan to increase their digital asset allocations. Second, accelerated enterprise blockchain adoption. In 2025, approximately 60% of Fortune 500 executives stated that their companies are actively advancing blockchain initiatives, with major players like Fidelity, Visa, and Stripe all positioning themselves in the stablecoin sector. He also noted the complementary nature of AI and public chain technologies, adding that emerging demands such as machine-native micro-payments and cross-border instant settlements will further drive real-world blockchain adoption. As regulatory frameworks grow increasingly clear, digital assets are rapidly integrating into the mainstream financial ecosystem.
According to CoinDesk, Visa is seeking new stablecoin settlement and OTC trading partners to replace BVNK, which was previously acquired by Mastercard. Relevant product request documents indicate that Visa expects partners to hold cryptocurrency exchange licenses in the U.S., Canada, the UK, and Singapore, and to support multiple stablecoin conversion and settlement services, including handling settlement for the Open USD stablecoin project promoted by Stripe, Visa, and Mastercard.
Odaily News - Thrive Capital, the venture capital firm founded by Joshua Kushner, has purchased approximately $215 million worth of Amazon shares, further expanding its investment footprint in public market companies.According to regulatory filings, this investment gives Thrive Capital exposure to Amazon's growth opportunities in artificial intelligence, including agentic AI shopping tools and AI computing infrastructure services for enterprise customers.Earlier this month, Amazon's market capitalization surpassed $3 trillion for the first time, making it the fifth company globally to reach this milestone. The market continues to focus on its development potential in generative AI, cloud computing, and AI-driven e-commerce.Thrive Capital has previously been known for investing in early-stage tech companies, with a portfolio that includes SpaceX, Stripe, and OpenAI. In recent years, the firm has increasingly added positions in publicly listed companies, including Figma, StubHub, and Oscar Health.Earlier this year, Thrive also disclosed to investors that it had purchased approximately $100 million worth of Shopify stock, citing AI technology as a driver of a new wave of growth in the e-commerce sector.This investment signals that Thrive Capital is further transitioning from a traditional venture capital model toward becoming an "investor in core assets of the AI era," sharing in the growth dividends of AI infrastructure and application ecosystems by taking positions in major tech companies. (Bloomberg)
Odaily News: Payment company Stripe did not sign long-term supplier contracts with third-party stablecoin APIs. Instead, after Bridge achieved $5 billion in annualized cross-border transaction volume, Stripe acquired it outright for $1.1 billion and integrated stablecoin infrastructure into its global checkout layer. Fintech platform Robinhood did not expand internationally through external trading venues. Instead, it acquired cryptocurrency exchange Bitstamp for $200 million, obtaining more than 50 global regulatory licenses and institutional liquidity. From 2012 to 2018, early B2B fintech startups paid traditional banks for proof-of-concept pilot fees. From 1996 to 2001, telecom infrastructure startups raised over $50 billion to lay dark fiber. (Bitcoin.com News)
Privy has launched a stablecoin card prebuilt component, enabling applications to embed a cardholder experience with a single integration, and has partnered with Stripe to issue stablecoin cards. The service currently covers more than 25 card issuing markets and plans to expand to over 100 by the end of the year. Users can spend directly using their Privy wallet or DeFi vault balances without needing to pre-transfer funds to a separate card account. The card issuer is Lead Bank, program management is handled by Bridge, and Stripe provides issuance services.
As reported by Fortune, Grayscale CEO Peter Mintzberg authored an article stating that Bitcoin rallied nearly 20% last week, recording its strongest three-day gains since 2023 as the crypto winter slowly thaws. However, he cautioned that market participants remain overly focused on short-term price fluctuations, overlooking the long-term structural growth of digital assets. Mintzberg highlighted two key drivers: first, sustained expansion in institutional demand. In 2025, the daily average capital inflow into spot Bitcoin ETPs exceeded $500 million, roughly 12 times the daily new supply from miners. Additionally, a 2026 EY survey revealed that 73% of institutional investors plan to increase their digital asset allocations. Second, accelerated enterprise blockchain adoption. In 2025, approximately 60% of Fortune 500 executives stated that their companies are actively advancing blockchain initiatives, with major players like Fidelity, Visa, and Stripe all positioning themselves in the stablecoin sector. He also noted the complementary nature of AI and public chain technologies, adding that emerging demands such as machine-native micro-payments and cross-border instant settlements will further drive real-world blockchain adoption. As regulatory frameworks grow increasingly clear, digital assets are rapidly integrating into the mainstream financial ecosystem.
Mizuho analysts stated that if the U.S. crypto market structure bill, the "Clarity Act," is passed, while it may generally benefit the digital asset industry, the long-term impact on Circle could be negative. The reason is that regulatory clarity will attract more large institutions into the stablecoin market, further accelerating stablecoin commodification and eroding the revenue potential of Circle's USDC.Mizuho believes that the primary pressure Circle faces in the near term comes from Open USD. This stablecoin project is backed by a coalition of over 140 financial, technology, and crypto companies, with members including Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, BlackRock, and Coinbase. Unlike Circle's model, which retains approximately 38% of USDC reserve yields, Open USD employs a "pass-through" model, distributing nearly all reserve yields to distribution partners while retaining only a small management fee.Analysts also noted that Coinbase, as the largest distributor of USDC, also supports Open USD. This could give Coinbase stronger bargaining power when renegotiating its revenue-sharing agreement with Circle in the future. The distribution agreement between the two parties could be up for renegotiation as early as next month.
According to CoinDesk, Japanese investment bank Mizuho has downgraded stablecoin issuer Circle (CRCL) from "Neutral" to "Underperform," with the price target significantly lowered from $85 to $50. Circle's stock price subsequently fell 0.6% to $62.63. Mizuho analysts pointed out that the OpenUSD stablecoin launched by the Open Standard consortium on June 30 poses a fundamental threat to Circle's business model. Unlike the USDC model, which retains most reserve yield and then shares it with partners such as Coinbase and Binance, OpenUSD charges only a small operating fee and distributes the vast majority of reserve yield to issuers and distributors, which may force Circle's partners to demand a higher revenue share. The consortium has assembled over 140 partners, including Mastercard, Stripe, Coinbase, and BlackRock.
after Open Standard announced the launch of its new stablecoin, Open USD (OUSD), Circle's stock price fell over 16% on Tuesday. The stablecoin is backed by over 140 companies, including Visa, Stripe, Mastercard, BlackRock, and Coinbase, raising market concerns that it could pose competitive pressure on Circle's USDC.However, William Blair analysts believe the sell-off was an overreaction and reiterated an "Outperform" rating on Circle's stock, suggesting the decline may present a buying opportunity. The firm believes that Circle holds a competitive advantage in the stablecoin space due to its first-mover status, deep liquidity, and mature payment infrastructure, positioning it well even against high-profile competitors like OUSD.Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire stated that the company welcomes competition and will continue to expand the USDC ecosystem. Analysts also noted that the overall stablecoin market is still rapidly expanding, and new entrants may not necessarily only eat into USDC's market share but could also drive broader industry adoption.
According to The Block, Matt Hougan, Chief Investment Officer at Bitwise, noted that three enterprise-grade blockchains—Arc (by Circle), Canton Network, and Tempo (by Stripe)—have collectively raised over $1 billion in funding recently. All three funding rounds occurred after the signing of the GENIUS Act in July 2025. Hougan believes this legislation broke a prior regulatory stalemate that had discouraged institutional capital from entering the space. Hougan identified three key signals: First, all three blockchains prioritize native privacy-preserving transactions as a core design feature, addressing institutions’ need for transaction confidentiality. Second, the implementation of the GENIUS Act has significantly reduced regulatory uncertainty; the next critical variable is the pending Clarity Act, from which stablecoins and tokenization infrastructure stand to benefit. Third, these blockchains are backed by top-tier institutions—including Goldman Sachs, Citadel, BlackRock, Stripe, and Visa—marking a stark contrast to Ethereum and Solana, which emerged from grassroots origins. Hougan stated that his firm’s capital remains primarily allocated to native crypto projects, and he believes these emerging enterprise chains will raise the overall competitive bar and attract additional capital inflows.
Odaily News: In response to the discussion about "why Coinbase would consider Jesse Pollak its onchain savior," Cobie said that although he does not agree with all of Jesse Pollak's views, he believes this assessment is well deserved.Cobie pointed out that Jesse Pollak drove Base's launch from scratch, and argued that Base arguably pioneered the trend of enterprises building their own chains that later followed from companies such as Stripe and Robinhood. Base's development predated the 2023 Solana meme coin wave, and Jesse Pollak kept pushing the project forward through the bear market after the FTX collapse until it launched.Cobie also said that Jesse Pollak has indeed made some mistakes over the past year, but what deserves respect is that even after facing long-term criticism from Crypto Twitter, he still keeps showing up and putting in the work every day.
Privy has launched a stablecoin card prebuilt component, enabling applications to embed a cardholder experience with a single integration, and has partnered with Stripe to issue stablecoin cards. The service currently covers more than 25 card issuing markets and plans to expand to over 100 by the end of the year. Users can spend directly using their Privy wallet or DeFi vault balances without needing to pre-transfer funds to a separate card account. The card issuer is Lead Bank, program management is handled by Bridge, and Stripe provides issuance services.
As reported by Caixin, Han Xinyi, CEO of Ant Group and Chairman of Alipay, presented systematic insights on the global exploration paths for AI payments at the China Payment Clearing Forum. He stated that AI payments have basically coalesced into four exploration paths: The first category comprises payment technology and infrastructure platforms represented by Stripe. The second category consists of cryptocurrency enterprises such as Circle and Coinbase, which primarily rely on stablecoins and their wallet ecosystems. Using cryptocurrencies as payment instruments, they directly enable automated machine-to-machine payment scenarios. The third category features traditional payment networks represented by the two major card organizations (Visa and Mastercard). The fourth category comprises AI platform companies such as Google and OpenAI.
Odaily News The digital euro, issued by the European Central Bank (ECB) and representing public money, is still in the development stage; EURR, on the other hand, is a stablecoin issued by a private institution designed to maintain a value of 1 euro. Both are aimed at meeting the demand for instant fund transfers within digital platforms.Fintech company Revolut has begun a phased rollout of its euro stablecoin EURR to eligible users in Denmark, Poland, and Portugal, with plans to expand to the European Economic Area in the future. EURR is deployed on the Ethereum network and can be used for on-chain transfers between fiat currencies, crypto assets, external wallets, and supported blockchain networks.EURR is issued by Bridge Building, a Stripe-owned company, rather than directly by Revolut. Piero Cipollone, a member of the ECB's Executive Board, stated that the digital euro will offer the highest level of privacy supported by current technology, with offline payments visible only to the payer and payee, while in online transactions, participating banks will still have access to information required for anti-money laundering compliance. (Forbes Digital Assets)
Odaily News: Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken's payment app Krak has launched a multi-asset debit card in the US, allowing users to spend cryptocurrency and fiat currency, with up to 2% cashback in USD or Bitcoin. The card supports over 600 currencies and assets, converting holdings to USD at checkout. Individual transactions can draw from multiple balances, and users can set their own asset spending order. The card is issued by Lead Bank, connected to the Visa network, and powered by Stripe Issuing. Arjun Sethi, co-CEO of Payward, Kraken's parent company, stated that Payward is expanding its asset classes and financial services, currently offering banking services, and views tokenization as an important component of expanding financial products. Krak said that since its launch in the UK and the European Economic Area in December 2025, it has issued more than 135,000 multi-asset cards. (Cointelegraph)
According to CoinDesk, Visa is seeking new stablecoin settlement and OTC trading partners to replace BVNK, which was previously acquired by Mastercard. Relevant product request documents indicate that Visa expects partners to hold cryptocurrency exchange licenses in the U.S., Canada, the UK, and Singapore, and to support multiple stablecoin conversion and settlement services, including handling settlement for the Open USD stablecoin project promoted by Stripe, Visa, and Mastercard.
Odaily News: In response to the discussion about "why Coinbase would consider Jesse Pollak its onchain savior," Cobie said that although he does not agree with all of Jesse Pollak's views, he believes this assessment is well deserved.Cobie pointed out that Jesse Pollak drove Base's launch from scratch, and argued that Base arguably pioneered the trend of enterprises building their own chains that later followed from companies such as Stripe and Robinhood. Base's development predated the 2023 Solana meme coin wave, and Jesse Pollak kept pushing the project forward through the bear market after the FTX collapse until it launched.Cobie also said that Jesse Pollak has indeed made some mistakes over the past year, but what deserves respect is that even after facing long-term criticism from Crypto Twitter, he still keeps showing up and putting in the work every day.
enterprise AI company Clay has announced the completion of a $115 million Series D funding round, led by Wellington, with participation from Sequoia Capital, StepStone, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Perennial, Meritech, DST, CapitalG, and others. The post-money valuation has risen to $7.1 billion.Clay stated that its AI agents can build real-time business and customer profiles based on internal and external data such as CRM, and automatically construct and execute workflows according to enterprise goals. Currently, companies including Anthropic, Google, OpenAI, and Stripe have adopted its products. (Reuters)
Privy has launched a stablecoin card prebuilt component, enabling applications to embed a cardholder experience with a single integration, and has partnered with Stripe to issue stablecoin cards. The service currently covers more than 25 card issuing markets and plans to expand to over 100 by the end of the year. Users can spend directly using their Privy wallet or DeFi vault balances without needing to pre-transfer funds to a separate card account. The card issuer is Lead Bank, program management is handled by Bridge, and Stripe provides issuance services.
According to Fortune, stablecoin payment infrastructure company Latitude, founded by former employees of Stripe, Uber, Coinbase, and Meta, has announced the completion of a $35 million Series A funding round, led by Oak HC/FT, with participation from NEA, Coinbase, Lightspeed Faction, and OpenFX. Latitude aims to address the "last mile" challenge following cross-border stablecoin payments by providing enterprises with infrastructure that converts stablecoins into local currencies and facilitates fund disbursement through local payment methods such as bank accounts and mobile wallets. Its current clients span digital banks, payroll platforms, e-commerce marketplaces, and financial institutions. The company previously closed an $8 million seed round. The new capital will be used to scale its compliance, engineering, legal, and sales teams, while accelerating efforts to secure regulatory licenses in markets including Southeast Asia, Latin America, and Africa.
As reported by Caixin, Han Xinyi, CEO of Ant Group and Chairman of Alipay, presented systematic insights on the global exploration paths for AI payments at the China Payment Clearing Forum. He stated that AI payments have basically coalesced into four exploration paths: The first category comprises payment technology and infrastructure platforms represented by Stripe. The second category consists of cryptocurrency enterprises such as Circle and Coinbase, which primarily rely on stablecoins and their wallet ecosystems. Using cryptocurrencies as payment instruments, they directly enable automated machine-to-machine payment scenarios. The third category features traditional payment networks represented by the two major card organizations (Visa and Mastercard). The fourth category comprises AI platform companies such as Google and OpenAI.
Odaily News The digital euro, issued by the European Central Bank (ECB) and representing public money, is still in the development stage; EURR, on the other hand, is a stablecoin issued by a private institution designed to maintain a value of 1 euro. Both are aimed at meeting the demand for instant fund transfers within digital platforms.Fintech company Revolut has begun a phased rollout of its euro stablecoin EURR to eligible users in Denmark, Poland, and Portugal, with plans to expand to the European Economic Area in the future. EURR is deployed on the Ethereum network and can be used for on-chain transfers between fiat currencies, crypto assets, external wallets, and supported blockchain networks.EURR is issued by Bridge Building, a Stripe-owned company, rather than directly by Revolut. Piero Cipollone, a member of the ECB's Executive Board, stated that the digital euro will offer the highest level of privacy supported by current technology, with offline payments visible only to the payer and payee, while in online transactions, participating banks will still have access to information required for anti-money laundering compliance. (Forbes Digital Assets)