Stripe Soars to $159 Billion Valuation After 70% Jump — What’s Behind the Rally?

The Irish-American payments giant processed $1.9 trillion in 2025, doubled its stablecoin volume and is positioning itself as the financial infrastructure layer for agentic commerce. It still has no plans to go public.

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Stripe has been valued at $159 billion in a tender offer for employees and shareholders, a 74 per cent increase from $91.5 billion a year ago. The share sale is backed by Thrive Capital, Coatue and Andreessen Horowitz, with Stripe also repurchasing shares using its own capital. Businesses on the platform processed $1.9 trillion in total payment volume in 2025, up 34 per cent year-on-year and equivalent to roughly 1.6 per cent of global GDP. The company remained “robustly profitable” while investing heavily in acquisitions — including the $1.1 billion purchase of stablecoin platform Bridge — and expanding into agentic commerce through partnerships with OpenAI and Microsoft. Co-founder John Collison confirmed there are no imminent plans for an IPO.

How did Stripe reach a $159 billion valuation?

Stripe announced on 24 February 2026 that a new tender offer values the company at $159 billion, making it the world’s most valuable private fintech company by a considerable margin. The valuation has climbed steeply: from $50 billion in early 2023, to $65 billion in March 2024, $91.5 billion in February 2025, and now $159 billion. That is a 74 per cent increase in twelve months.

The tender offer provides liquidity to current and former employees, with most of the capital coming from existing investors including Thrive Capital, Coatue and Andreessen Horowitz. Stripe is also using its own balance sheet to repurchase shares. The structure — annual tender offers rather than an IPO — has become the company’s preferred model for employee liquidity. Analysts note that ample private market financing is allowing late-stage startups to remain private indefinitely, particularly given volatile public markets in early 2026. Co-founder John Collison confirmed there are no imminent plans for a public listing.

What is driving Stripe’s growth?

The underlying business numbers are formidable. Stripe processed $1.9 trillion in total payment volume in 2025, up 34 per cent from the prior year. That volume is equivalent to roughly 1.6 per cent of global GDP. The company now powers more than 5 million businesses directly or through platforms, including 80 per cent of the Nasdaq 100 and 90 per cent of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. More businesses signed up in 2025 than in any previous year, with 57 per cent based outside the United States.

Beyond core payments, Stripe’s Revenue suite — encompassing Billing, Invoicing and Tax products — is on track to reach a $1 billion annual run rate in 2026. Stripe Capital, its business lending arm, grew funding volume by 45 per cent year-on-year, supporting more than 81,000 businesses. One in four Delaware corporations is now created using Stripe Atlas. The company said it remained robustly profitable throughout 2025 while shipping more than 350 product updates. As we explored in our analysis of Europe’s most profitable fintechs, profitability has become the defining metric for fintech credibility — and Stripe is delivering it at extraordinary scale.

Why are stablecoins and agentic commerce central to Stripe’s strategy?

Two themes dominated the Collison brothers’ 2025 annual letter: stablecoins and agentic commerce.

On stablecoins, the numbers are striking. Global stablecoin payments volume doubled to around $400 billion in 2025, with roughly 60 per cent estimated to represent business-to-business transactions. Stripe’s acquisition of stablecoin infrastructure platform Bridge for $1.1 billion — its largest deal to date — is at the centre of this push. Bridge volume more than quadrupled during the year. Stripe launched Open Issuance, a platform allowing any business to create and manage its own stablecoin with a few lines of code, with reserves managed by BlackRock, Fidelity and Superstate. It also unveiled Tempo, a payments-focused blockchain built with Paradigm, with Visa, Nubank, Shopify and Klarna testing settlement use cases. As we reported in our coverage of the European banking consortium building a euro stablecoin, the stablecoin infrastructure race is now a central front in the global payments battle.

On agentic commerce, Stripe is positioning itself as the financial plumbing for AI-driven purchasing. It partnered with OpenAI to create the Agentic Commerce Protocol, which powers Instant Checkout inside ChatGPT. It launched an Agentic Commerce Suite for businesses to sell across multiple AI interfaces with a single integration, and introduced Shared Payment Tokens allowing agents to initiate payments without exposing credentials. Brands including Anthropologie, Urban Outfitters, Etsy, Coach and Kate Spade are already onboarding. Stripe is also working with Microsoft to bring similar capabilities to Copilot. As we examined in our analysis of agentic commerce and who is liable when AI buys on your behalf, the legal and regulatory framework has not caught up with the technology — but Stripe is building the infrastructure regardless.

Thrive Capital partner Kareem Zaki summed up the investor thesis: “We believe Stripe’s lead will only expand across the future of money movement due to their leadership in agentic commerce, stablecoins, and more.”

What does this mean for European fintech and payments?

Stripe is headquartered in both San Francisco and Dublin, and 57 per cent of its 2025 new business came from outside the US. Its European presence is significant — it processes payments across the continent and its Irish incorporation gives it direct access to EU passporting. But the scale gap between Stripe and European-born competitors is widening. At $159 billion, Stripe is worth more than Adyen ($48 billion), Worldline and Nexi combined.

The strategic question for Europe is whether Stripe’s expansion into stablecoins and agentic commerce reinforces or undermines the continent’s payments sovereignty ambitions. As we reported in our coverage of Europe’s $24 trillion breakup with Visa and Mastercard, the EU is investing heavily in domestic payment infrastructure. But Stripe’s open protocols, AI partnerships and stablecoin platform may prove more attractive to merchants than any government-backed alternative — creating a new form of infrastructure dependency that regulators have not yet begun to address.

For now, Stripe is content to stay private, stay profitable and keep building. The question is not whether it will go public. It is whether anyone can catch it.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Stripe’s valuation in 2026?

Stripe was valued at $159 billion in a tender offer announced on 24 February 2026, a 74 per cent increase from $91.5 billion a year earlier. The share sale provides liquidity to current and former employees, with investors including Thrive Capital, Coatue and Andreessen Horowitz providing most of the capital. Co-founder John Collison confirmed there are no imminent plans for an IPO.

How much does Stripe process in payments?

Stripe processed $1.9 trillion in total payment volume in 2025, up 34 per cent year-on-year and equivalent to roughly 1.6 per cent of global GDP. The company powers more than 5 million businesses, including 80 per cent of the Nasdaq 100 and 90 per cent of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

What is Stripe’s role in agentic commerce and stablecoins?

Stripe partnered with OpenAI to create the Agentic Commerce Protocol, which powers Instant Checkout inside ChatGPT, and is working with Microsoft to bring similar capabilities to Copilot. On stablecoins, global payments volume on the platform doubled to $400 billion in 2025. Stripe acquired stablecoin infrastructure firm Bridge for $1.1 billion and launched Open Issuance, allowing businesses to create their own stablecoins, and Tempo, a payments-focused blockchain built with Paradigm.