Stripe Acquires Startup Privy To Expand Bitcoin Strategy

Today, Stripe Inc. announced that it has acquired Bitcoin and crypto wallet infrastructure provider Privy, marking its second major digital asset focused acquisition following its $1.1 billion purchase of stablecoin firm Bridge earlier this year.

Privy specializes in helping companies embed Bitcoin and crypto wallets directly into their apps and websites. For example, NFT marketplace OpenSea uses Privy to streamline purchases by automatically generating wallets for users. This removes the need for external wallet setups through services like MetaMask or Coinbase.

“When we started, wallets were powerful but inaccessible for all but the most technical,” said the Co-founder and CEO of Privy Henri Stern in a statement. “Developers had to send users off-platform to get started, breaking flows and killing user conversion. That friction fundamentally constrained what could be built in crypto.”

Privy, based in New York, was founded by Henri Stern and Asta Li in 2021. Li was previously a founding engineer at Aurora, while Stern worked as a research scientist at web3 firm Protocol Labs. The startup has raised just over $40 million from investors including Ribbit Capital, Definition, and Coinbase Ventures, and was last valued at $230 million in March, according to PitchBook.

“We started Privy a little over three years ago to make it easy for any developer to build better products on crypto rails,” stated their announcement. “Whether crypto is core to your app or simply a new layer of functionality, a good crypto product should just feel like a good product, period. By making crypto usable, we help make it useful for everyone.”

The acquisition follows Stripe’s earlier purchase of Bridge which helped accelerate interest in digital assets. Earlier this year, Stripe introduced stablecoin funded accounts designed to help merchants store funds and make international payments using Circle’s USDC and Bridge’s USDB. Similar to Bridge, Privy will continue operating as a standalone product.

Privy will power over 75 million accounts and support more than 1,000 developer teams, enabling billions in transaction volume, according to the announcement. Clients include Hyperliquid, Blackbird, Toku, and Farcaster, all using Bitcoin and crypto infrastructure to build real-world products in areas like trading, payments, payroll, and social applications.

“With a unified platform, connecting Privy’s wallets to the money movement capabilities in Stripe and Bridge, we’re enormously excited to enable a new generation of global, Internet-native financial services,” stated the co-founder and CEO of Stripe Patrick Collison.