Stripe's valuation surpasses $140 billion: An in-depth analysis of the IPO strategy and crypto deployment behind it

Stripe is arranging a new buyout offer that will push its valuation to at least $140 billion. This is over $30 billion higher than the company’s estimated valuation of approximately $107 billion last year, representing a significant increase.

Since 2024, this payments giant has frequently employed buyout mechanisms to provide liquidity for employees and early investors, rather than opting for traditional IPO routes. Despite the soaring valuation, co-founder and President John Collison publicly stated in January this year that he is satisfied with the company’s private status and is “still not in a rush to go public.”

Buyouts: A Non-IPO Path to Valuation Growth

Buyouts are becoming a core part of Stripe’s unique capital strategy. According to informed sources, the latest transaction Stripe is arranging aims to enable existing shareholders—mainly employees and early investors—to sell their shares on the secondary market. This arrangement will imply a valuation of at least $140 billion for the payments giant, surpassing the approximately $107 billion valuation in 2024 by over $30 billion.

As a form of secondary equity transaction, buyouts cleverly address the most urgent liquidity needs of private company shareholders. For employees who have worked hard for Stripe and hold substantial equity incentives, this means their paper wealth can be converted into actual cash in stages. This mechanism allows Stripe to maintain its private status while continuously attracting and retaining top talent. The company avoids the strict regulations, quarterly reporting pressures, and market volatility associated with going public, enabling it to focus more on long-term strategy.

From Bottom to Rebound: The Logic Behind Stripe’s Valuation Recovery

Stripe’s valuation rebound trajectory is a classic case. Rewind to March 2023, when the company’s valuation in a funding round was only $50 billion. At that time, it was seen as a significant correction from the peak of $95 billion in 2021. However, by focusing on profitability, deepening AI-driven fintech innovation, and expanding globally, Stripe quickly regained growth momentum.

By early 2025, through an employee share sale, its valuation had recovered to $91.5 billion. The company disclosed that in 2024, it processed a total payment volume of $1.4 trillion, a 38% increase over the previous year, providing solid performance support for the valuation rebound. Driven by strong fundamentals and market optimism about the long-term prospects of payment infrastructure, Stripe’s valuation has jumped from about $107 billion to at least $140 billion within a year.

Business Foundations: Deeply Connecting to the Global Digital Economy

Stripe’s confidence in its valuation stems from its irreplaceable business foundation. As a “developer-first” payments infrastructure company, Stripe offers a simple and efficient API that allows global businesses to easily integrate online payment capabilities.

Today, its services have far exceeded initial online payment processing, evolving into a comprehensive toolkit that includes subscription billing, fraud detection, risk management, offline payment hardware, and financial accounts. The company serves “half of the Fortune 100,” with clients including Amazon, Shopify, and millions of small and medium-sized enterprises.

In 2024, Stripe achieved full-year profitability, marking its strong self-sustaining capability. While optimizing operations, Stripe recently restructured about 300 employees (roughly 3.5% of its total workforce), but also announced plans to continue hiring to optimize talent and support future growth.

Strategic Deep Dive: Stripe’s Ambitions and Layout in Cryptocurrency

Contrary to the market’s common perception of Stripe as merely a “payments company,” the firm is quietly making deep strategic moves into the cryptocurrency and blockchain space. This trend may be another key factor behind its high valuation expectations.

Stripe is building its own blockchain network, Tempo. This highly anticipated Layer 1 blockchain launched on the public testnet in December 2025 and is expected to go live on the mainnet in 2026. Tempo is not an isolated project; its partners include industry giants like Anthropic, OpenAI, Shopify, Visa, and others. Notably, the well-known “buy now, pay later” company Klarna announced plans to deploy its stablecoin KlarnaUSD on the Tempo network in 2026.

To strengthen its crypto payment infrastructure, Stripe completed two key acquisitions in 2024: infrastructure platform Bridge and crypto wallet provider Privy, aiming to weave stablecoins more tightly into its core payment business.

Cross-Comparison: Fintech’s Crypto Race and New Valuation Systems

As Stripe leads the fintech sector with a $140 billion valuation, the traditional crypto market is also undergoing structural changes. For example, as of February 10, 2026, Bitcoin’s price was $70,059.3 with a market cap of $1.41 trillion; Ethereum’s price was $2,104.73, with a market cap of $252.8 billion.

Stripe’s crypto initiatives are not isolated but reflect a broader trend among fintech giants. PayPal launched its own stablecoin PYUSD as early as 2023, and by 2025, its circulation had surged 600% to $3.6 billion.

Emerging banks like Revolut and trading platforms like Robinhood are also expanding their crypto teams and product lines in 2026, actively embracing digital assets. The core of this race is about who can provide the next-generation infrastructure for cross-border payments, enterprise settlements, and emerging digital assets worth trillions of dollars.

Future Outlook: The Dawn of Fintech and Crypto Integration

Looking ahead, the development paths of fintech giants like Stripe will profoundly influence the future of global capital flows. The buyout model for liquidity, rather than IPOs, demonstrates that top tech companies, supported by abundant private capital, can remain private, flexible, and focused. The progress of their blockchain project, Tempo, will be a key window into how traditional fintech can integrate with decentralized networks. If successful, it could be more than just a new blockchain; it might become a bridge connecting millions of existing businesses with the crypto ecosystem.

For the entire industry, the boundaries between payments, cryptocurrencies, and traditional financial services are accelerating their convergence. Platforms that can seamlessly integrate these three areas and provide global enterprises with low-cost, high-efficiency capital solutions will define the next decade’s financial infrastructure landscape.

Stripe’s headquarters lights burn through the night. Engineers are busy testing the next phase of the Tempo blockchain, while the finance team prepares documents for the upcoming buyout offer. Wall Street analysts update valuation models and speculate on how close this company is to finally ringing the listing bell. Meanwhile, investors on platforms like Gate are keenly sensing every subtle resonance between traditional finance and the crypto world through the rapid fluctuations of Bitcoin and Ethereum prices.