Monoup News Digest: Main Updates from Fintech Industry
Friday digest from Monoup is back on air, and today we're covering the main events of the past week in detail. The main hero of this week is PayPal, and right alongside it — Stripe, which, armed with the support of Advent, has submitted its offer to acquire the digital wallet. Rumors of such intentions surfaced in the spring, but there was no information about an offer. Then in early July, the industry learned that negotiations had officially begun — we'll get into the details below.
At the same time, Tether is also not leaving the front pages of fintech media, finding itself in very different positions across different countries. Thailand is planning to tighten control over transactions involving the token and all exchange operations that bypass the treasury, while Bolivia is considering equating it with traditional currency and allowing parallel circulation.
Let's break it all down in order.
Stripe and Advent are Looking to Buy PayPal
Stripe and investment firm Advent International have submitted a joint offer to acquire PayPal at $60.50 per share, valuing the company at more than $53 billion. The deal is backed by approximately $50 billion in committed bank financing and, if completed, would become the largest acquisition in fintech history and a rare case of a venture-backed company taking over an S&P 500 member. The information was published by Reuters citing sources familiar with the matter; the parties themselves declined to comment.
The offer, carrying a 28% premium to the market price, didn't come out of nowhere — a first approach was made back in April, but PayPal ignored it entirely at the time. The formal bid only appeared in July, with both sides hoping to wrap up negotiations by the end of the month. There is clear strategic logic behind the offer: Stripe has historically been strong on the merchant and developer side, but lacks a consumer product — and PayPal, with more than 400 million users and the Venmo service, fills exactly that gap. Braintree, which competes directly with Stripe, would add roughly $600 billion in transaction volume on the enterprise segment. The digital layer is particularly interesting: Stripe acquired Bridge, a stablecoin infrastructure platform, in 2025, while PayPal has its own stablecoin PYUSD with a market cap of around $2.85 billion — together, this would combine issuance infrastructure and consumer distribution under one roof.
PayPal, however, received the offer without enthusiasm: according to Reuters, the board views the price as undervaluing the company and sees regulatory and financial risks in the deal. This doesn't mean an outright rejection — it rather opens up negotiation, especially given that PayPal's stock has fallen 35% over the past 12 months and 85% from its historical peak of $360 billion in 2021, which makes the company's position ambiguous: on one hand, there's something worth protecting, on the other — the turbulence of recent years suggests that going it alone doesn't guarantee success either. PayPal's board is set to meet as soon as July 20 to discuss the offer.
Thailand Is Bringing USDT Under Tighter Control
The Bank of Thailand, together with the Securities and Exchange Commission, has launched an audit of large USDT transactions — regulators are looking for patterns that point to hidden beneficiaries and attempts to bypass domestic remittance channels.
The analytical model is already running, tracking large USDT payments, and any baht cash that appears out of nowhere will raise questions about its source. Since April, the country has required an explanation for large cash withdrawals — from 5 million baht ($140–150 thousand) and above; in the fourth quarter of 2026, the same rule will apply in reverse: large cash deposits will also require proof of the source of funds. The results of the April restrictions are already visible: large cash withdrawals fell by 35%, and monthly physical gold outflows dropped from 4,000 to 700 kilograms.
The context behind these measures is that USDT accounts for around 52% of all digital asset trading volume in Thailand, while the country's daily crypto market turnover is around $86 million — nearly a quarter of the official foreign exchange market, through which $300–450 million passes daily. According to the central bank, more than 40% of USDT sellers on Thai exchanges are undocumented foreigners, which makes the stablecoin a central element of the grey economy. USDT is not banned in the country and is approved for use on licensed exchanges — what regulators object to is specifically the opaque portion of its turnover.
USDT Could Become Part of Bolivia's Payment Ecosystem
At the other end of the regulatory spectrum lies Bolivia, where the picture is fundamentally different. Minister of Economy and Finance José Gabriel Espinoza announced that the government is conducting a technical assessment of the possibility of including USDT in the national payment system — so that the stablecoin would circulate on a par with the boliviano and the dollar.
This is a 180-degree reversal for a country that banned cryptocurrency transactions until 2024. After the ban was lifted, crypto volumes in Bolivia grew by more than 600% in 2025, and two state banks — Banco Unión and Banco FIE — had already added USDT to their mobile apps in April, meaning integration had de facto begun ahead of any official decisions.
The country is experiencing an acute foreign currency shortage and in early 2026 allowed the boliviano to float freely after 15 years of a fixed exchange rate. USDT is already being used by the population and businesses as a working tool — its legalization in the payment system would give the state the ability to track and tax what previously existed in the grey zone. If the proposal reaches an official decision, Bolivia would become the first country in the world where a private stablecoin receives circulation status on a par with the national currency.
That's the news for this week! Subscribe to our Telegram channel and read our long reads on the website — we constantly update our materials with expert articles and keep you in the loop with short notification posts.
