On October 17, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter, that payment company Stripe Inc. is in advanced talks to acquire financial technology platform Bridge, but no final decision has been made yet, and either party may still withdraw from the deal. Bridge's platform is designed to allow businesses to create, store, send and receive stablecoins such as Tether's USDT and Circle's UDSC. According to Fortune magazine in August this year, the startup raised a total of $58 million, with investors including Sequoia, Ribbit Capital, Index and Haun Ventures. Sequoia led Bridge's most recent $40 million Series A funding round, and at the time also highlighted the market opportunity for stablecoins, created in part by moves by companies like Stripe. Neither side has responded to the matter so far.