Stripe, Advent mount a blockbuster $53 billion bid to buy PayPal (PYPL)

Payments giant Stripe offered to buy PayPal (PYPL) in a deal worth $53 billion, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday.

San Francisco-based Stripe made the $60.50-a-share offer in tandem with private equity firm Advent International, according to the report, which cited two people familiar with the matter.

The bid represents a premium of about 28% over PayPal’s Tuesday closing price of $47.37. The New York-listed payments provider’s shares have surged by more than 18% to $56.10 in pre-market trading.

The bid follows an earlier expression of interest, though PayPal has been reluctant to engage with the offer thus far, the FT said.

Neither PayPal, Stripe, nor Advent immediately responded to CoinDesk’s request for comment.

Stripe and PayPal are among the most prominent mainstream financial companies bringing stablecoins to traditional payment mechanisms. Stablecoins are digital tokens pegged to the value of a traditional financial asset, usually a fiat currency.

PayPal’s stablecoin PYUSD is the eighth-largest in the sector with a market capitalization of $185 million, according to CoinGecko data. The industry is dominated by Tether’s USDT, which accounts for $184 billion.

Stripe’s historical focus has been on integrating the second-largest stablecoin, Circle Internet’s USDC, into its payments infrastructure.

It has recently moved toward offering stablecoin and other blockchain-based services more independently, developing with its own mainnet, Tempo. The company also joined the Open USD venture alongside Mastercard, Visa and BlackRock to develop a new stablecoin, which could pose a serious challenge to USDC.