Stripe and PayPal Combination Would Reorder the Payments Landscape

Tuesday (Feb. 24) marked a potentially seismic day in the payments industry.

Rumors of Stripe’s interest in PayPal emerged after hours on Tuesday, initially reported by the likes of Bloomberg, with implications extend beyond deal mechanics.

Stripe and PayPal operate at different but increasingly intersecting layers of the payments economy, particularly across digital wallets, identity systems and checkout optimization.

Whether, how, perhaps even when, a deal materializes—well, that’s a bit of Wall Street parlor game, where discussion will doubtless focus on valuation, the assumption of debt and the fact that PayPal’s stock price has declined by more than 80% through the past few years.

PYMNTS reached out to both companies for comment on Tuesday evening. PayPal declined to comment. We had not heard back from Stripe as of this writing.

But dig a bit deeper and the name of the game, at least for this possible marriage, would be: Scale.

The timing of any deal is interesting. Also on Tuesday, as reported by PYMNTS, Stripe, which is a private company, published its latest update. Its annual letter said: “Businesses running on Stripe generated $1.9 trillion in total volume, up 34% from 2024, and equivalent to roughly 1.6% of global GDP.” The company also noted that its digital wallet Link is now used by more than 200 million people.

As for PayPal—as PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster wrote in January in a LinkedIn post—the new CEO of the firm, Enrique Lores, “led the separation of HP into two business units in 2014. Could that be PayPal’s next move?”

PayPal’s own disclosures indicate that full-year total payments volume reached $1.79 trillion as the company entered this year in reset mode, amid decelerating growth. The company numbers 439 million active accounts among its customer roster.

Complementary Strengths Across the Payments Stack

Stripe’s platform functions primarily as merchant infrastructure. Its services include payments acceptance, billing, fraud prevention, treasury tools and embedded financial capabilities. Stripe’s letter underscores its focus on conversion performance, noting that “optimizing your payments setup is almost guaranteed to yield extra revenue.”

PayPal’s strengths remain concentrated in consumer-facing networks. Venmo surpassed 100 million active accounts and generated $1.7 billion in revenue, as disclosed in company materials and on the earnings call. PayPal’s branded checkout continues to deliver conversion benefits.

Taken together, these capabilities align merchant-side optimization with consumer identity, wallet authentication and funding systems.

Digital Wallets as Strategic Infrastructure

Digital wallets increasingly function as identity anchors, stored credential repositories, and funding orchestration layers. Stripe’s ecosystem includes Link and programmable wallet capabilities following its Privy acquisition, which per the latest letter, “powers more than 110 million programmable wallets.”

PayPal’s wallet assets remain extensive. Venmo’s engagement metrics illustrate the behavioral dimension of wallet usage. PayPal’s management commentary details that consumers with recent app use were about 40% more likely to select PayPal during checkout the following week, highlighting the relationship between wallet engagement and payment choice.

A merged entity could integrate Stripe’s tokenization and optimization systems with PayPal’s consumer identity and funding networks.

Checkout as the Central Battleground

Checkout mechanics now play a decisive role in merchant economics. Conversion rates, authentication success, funding presentation and payment sequencing increasingly determine transaction outcomes.

Stripe’s annual letter references “checkouts that adapt differently to each customer,” reflecting a merchant-side optimization model grounded in authorization, routing and payment method optionality.

PayPal’s management similarly positions checkout as a performance engine. The company reported that 36% of its consumers are considered “checkout ready,” defined by biometric authentication or device passkeys.

Presentment and placement introduce additional variables. PayPal’s management has said that when buy now, pay later offerings are presented upstream and with a second payment button, the company see more than a 10% lift in branded checkout volume.

Digital wallets sit directly at the center of this equation. Wallets reduce friction by storing credentials, maintaining persistent identity and enabling biometric authentication. A combined Stripe–PayPal architecture could unify merchant optimization with wallet identity. Stripe’s infrastructure could shape routing, authorization and fraud decisions, while PayPal’s wallet systems would cement authentication, funding choice and consumer selection behavior.

The interaction between identity continuity and merchant optimization would conceivably be a primary driver of checkout performance.

Overlap and Integration Considerations

Overlap between Stripe and PayPal is structurally unavoidable. Both companies compete in online payments, fraud management and merchant services. Consolidation would likely produce rationalization across duplicate payment processing functions and overlapping value-added services.

If Stripe pursued selected PayPal assets rather than the full organization, several components emerge as logical candidates.

Venmo represents a highly engaged consumer wallet. Enterprise Payments provides enterprise merchant relationships. Branded checkout offers conversion leverage despite recent growth deceleration. Full acquisition offers unified control across merchant infrastructure, wallet identity, fraud modeling, settlement and rewards systems.

Competitive Implications

A Stripe–PayPal combination would influence competitive dynamics across several sectors. FinTech firms specializing in wallet orchestration, fraud management or buy now, pay later solutions would face a larger integrated platform. Independent processors could encounter intensified pricing pressure. Network operators would engage a counterparty with expanded scale. A larger combined platform could intermediate more checkout interactions.

For end customers, wallet functionality and payment choice would likely remain stable in the near term. Over time, integration could reduce authentication friction, expand funding flexibility and alter how rewards, identity and payment preference interact at checkout.

Deal or no deal, the direction is clear. Digital wallets are becoming identity engines, and checkout is now a conversion battleground.