Stripe and Advent International have reportedly offered $60.50 per share to acquire PayPal, valuing the payments giant at over $53 billion. PayPal's board has deemed the bid inadequate and flagged significant regulatory and compliance hurdles, according to people familiar with the matter. The deal's uncertainty also puts a spotlight on PayPal's stablecoin PYUSD, which could see a major distribution boost if the acquisition goes through — or continue growing on its own if it doesn't.
The bid and the board's response
The all-cash offer from Stripe and private equity firm Advent would be one of the largest buyouts in fintech history. But PayPal's board isn't biting — at least not at that price. Directors called the $60.50 per share inadequate and pointed to unresolved regulatory, compliance, and technical risks. The board's pushback doesn't kill the deal outright, but it raises the bar for any revised offer. Stripe and Advent haven't commented publicly.
What happens to PYUSD
PYUSD, PayPal's dollar-pegged stablecoin, has a market cap of roughly $2.82 billion and a circulating supply of about 2.82 billion tokens. It's issued by Paxos and lives on Ethereum and natively on Polygon. If the deal closes, PYUSD could be plugged into Stripe's merchant checkout and payout systems, dramatically expanding its reach beyond PayPal's own ecosystem. That would put it in front of millions of merchants who use Stripe to accept payments.
If the deal falls through, PYUSD's growth path stays the same: it'll continue rolling out through PayPal and Venmo apps, crypto exchanges, and on-chain wallets. The stablecoin has been gaining traction this year, and PayPal has been pushing it as a settlement tool for its own network. Either way, the token isn't going away.
Risks that remain
Regardless of whether the acquisition happens, PYUSD — and any stablecoin tied to a major payments firm — faces persistent risks. Regulators are still figuring out how to treat stablecoins, and compliance costs are high. On the technical side, there's always the threat of a depeg event or chain fragmentation as the token spreads across more blockchains. The board flagged these exact issues when it pushed back on the bid.
The next concrete step is unclear. Stripe and Advent could come back with a higher offer, or walk away. PayPal's board has made its position clear, but the clock is ticking — and PYUSD's future distribution strategy depends on which way the deal goes.
