Stripe, partnering with private equity heavyweight Advent International, has submitted a non-binding offer to acquire PayPal Holdings for roughly $53 billion, or $60.50 per share. That price represents a 28% premium over PayPal’s previous closing price, and PayPal’s stock responded accordingly, surging approximately 16% in premarket trading.

The deal, backed by around $50 billion in committed bank financing, would give Stripe and Advent equal ownership stakes. The two buyers intend to keep PayPal intact rather than carving it up for parts.

How the payments landscape got here

At its peak in 2021, PayPal commanded a market capitalization of approximately $360 billion. By the time this offer landed, that figure had shriveled to around $41-42 billion.

Meanwhile, Stripe reached a valuation of $159 billion as of February 2026 and processed $1.9 trillion in total payment volume during 2025.

The timeline of this courtship stretches back months. Stripe first expressed interest in February 2026, followed by another outreach in April, before formally submitting the offer on July 15.

PayPal appointed Enrique Lores as CEO in March 2026, and he’s been restructuring operations into distinct business units for checkout, Venmo, and payments/crypto.

What a combined entity would look like

Stripe and Advent aren’t proposing a breakup. They want to run PayPal as a unified company with equal ownership between a tech platform and a private equity firm. Stripe would presumably be in it for the strategic value, specifically the merchant relationships, consumer payment products like Venmo, and the crypto infrastructure PayPal has built.

Stripe dominates developer-facing payment APIs and backend processing for online businesses. PayPal owns consumer-facing products, peer-to-peer payments through Venmo, and a substantial checkout presence across e-commerce.

What this means for investors and the crypto angle

PayPal has been steadily building its digital asset capabilities, offering Bitcoin and Ethereum trading to its massive user base. It launched its own stablecoin, and its payments/crypto unit is now being run as a standalone division under the new corporate structure.

Stripe re-enabled crypto payments in 2024 after initially stepping away from Bitcoin support years earlier.

PayPal’s stock decline from a $360 billion peak to $42 billion wasn’t entirely about fundamentals. It was about sentiment, competition fears, and a market that had moved on to shinier objects.

For PayPal shareholders, the 28% premium is attractive but raises an obvious question: is $60.50 per share enough for a company that once traded above $300? The deal remains non-binding, and PayPal’s board hasn’t publicly responded yet.