Stripe is making big moves in the world of cryptocurrency. They just wrapped up a deal to buy the stablecoin platform Bridge for $1.1 billion. This news first came from TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington and was later confirmed by both companies.

Bridge has raised $54 million in funding. It was started by Zach Abrams and Sean Yu, who previously worked at Square and Coinbase. This startup has some impressive clients, including SpaceX and Coinbase. Bridge aims to be the blockchain version of Stripe, creating a global system that lets other developers easily integrate.

This year, Stripe has been exploring ways to expand its services to include cryptocurrency. They are particularly interested in using Circle's USDC stablecoin. This stablecoin offers a reliable digital currency option for online and in-person transactions.

CoinDesk reached out to both Stripe and Bridge for comments but didn’t get a response before publishing this article.

Update (14:40 UTC, Oct. 21): This article now includes confirmation from both companies and a statement from Stripe CEO Patrick Collison.