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Patrick Collison, CEO and co-founder of Stripe, speaking at 2022’s Italian Tech Week in Turin, Italy.

Giuliano Berti | Bloomberg | Getty Images

SAN FRANCISCO — What started as a casual roundtable at Stripe’s headquarters to discuss issues facing fintech companies turned into a billion-dollar acquisition that could become a defining moment for the industry.

Last summer, Stripe hosted Wally Adeyemo, who was then deputy secretary of the Treasury Department, for a chat with a number of financial services providers. Among the attendees were Stripe CEO Patrick Collison and Bridge co-founder Zach Abrams. The two entrepreneurs had never met.

Abrams, whose startup specialized in stablecoin infrastructure, said the session surprised him, as it quickly morphed into a conversation specific to his company.

“It was shocking to me,” Abrams told CNBC this week, recalling the event. The group “spent 90-plus percent of the meeting talking about stablecoins — even though we were the only stablecoin company” in the room, he said.

By the end, Bridge was firmly on Stripe’s radar. Months later, that initial meeting led to Stripe’s biggest acquisition to date, a $1.1 billion purchase of Bridge. The deal, which closed Tuesday after clearing regulatory hurdles, gives Stripe a firm foothold in crypto, a market where it previously struggled to gain traction.

“In the course of us spending time together, he probably developed more of an understanding of our business,” said Abrams, who co-founded Bridge in 2022. “And I think there was a growing excitement around the ways that our business can grow, and probably the ways our business could help support and grow the Stripe ecosystem.”

Stripe co-founder John Collison on startups, state of consumer and impact of AI

Bridge’s roughly 60-person team convened in San Francisco on Tuesday for the official onboarding. The newcomers were introduced to Stripe’s culture with a crash course on how to write like a Stripe employee and an intro to the business from Collison.

It’s all part of Stripe’s standard fintech boot camp, a program that runs every two weeks for new hires.

Bridge focuses on making it easier for businesses to accept stablecoin payments without having to directly deal in digital tokens. Stablecoins are a type of cryptocurrency whose value is pegged to the value of a real-world asset, such as the U.S. dollar. Customers include Coinbase and SpaceX.

Companies across the financial services landscape, from legacy banks to startup payment providers, are adopting stablecoins or exploring launching their own because they make it easier and cheaper to switch between currencies and to move money digitally. Standard Chartered predicted in a recent report that stablecoins could grow to become about 10% of foreign exchange transactions, up from 1% today.

Prior to Abrams’ first interaction with Collison at the roundtable, Bridge had been aggressively courting Stripe as a customer, hoping to integrate its technology into the payment giant’s ecosystem. As the two CEOs spent more time together in the weeks that followed, Collison’s interest in Bridge deepened.

Previous failure

Stripe had already taken a shot at crypto — and failed. It was one of the first major fintech firms to support bitcoin payments in 2014, but pulled the plug in 2018, citing scalability issues and high transaction fees. Still, the company insisted at the time that it remained “very optimistic about cryptocurrencies overall.”

Stablecoins would be Stripe’s next foray. At its flagship Sessions conference in April, the company said it would enable merchants to accept stablecoins for online purchases. In its first week of the offering, Stripe saw more stablecoin volume than in its entire history of offering bitcoin transactions.

However, Stripe was still missing a key component to make it all work. It needed a way to seamlessly handle cross-border transactions.

That’s precisely what Bridge offered, said Neetika Bansal, Stripe’s head of money movement products.

“If you think about Stripe and what we’ve focused on for the past seven years — what I personally have focused on — it’s been about breaking down the barriers for global commerce,” Bansal told CNBC in an interview at Stripe’s office. “We’ve done it, to a large part, on traditional financial rails.”

Stripe’s approach to global payments for years involved navigating the complex regulatory and operational challenges in each market it entered. Bridge had developed “a super elegant solution to cross-border use cases” and had “meaningful traction with companies of all sizes,” Bansal said. “It just felt almost like a no-brainer to go and acquire them.”

Early Bridge investor weighs in on $1.1 billion Stripe deal

Stripe paid a hefty price for a two-year old company, an amount that was about three times higher than Bridge’s valuation in a funding round in August.

Bansal framed the acquisition as a strategic step toward modernizing Stripe’s global money movement capabilities.

“We are working very closely together to figure out the right opportunities, where we should power our products with Bridge and, in fact, where we should do new product development on Bridge infrastructure,” she said. “That’s what the next few weeks look like.”

Stripe processes millions of cross-border transactions daily, a segment that’s growing 50% annually. Bansal said stablecoins could meaningfully reduce costs and streamline transactions compared to traditional financial networks.

Bansal used as an example a company in the U.S. paying a contractor in the Philippines, which she called “a common use case as company workforces are going global.”

Stripe has partnered with Remote.com, a global human resources and contractor platform, to process payouts using stablecoin infrastructure in more than 70 countries. Bansal said she sees stablecoins playing a growing role in foreign exchange and treasury management for large enterprises.

For now, Bridge will continue running its existing products, but the teams are working together to determine the best integrations and explore new products that can be built on Bridge’s technology.

“They’re clearly a leader in the space,” Bansal said about Bridge. “A lot of our conversations are about absorbing what Bridge has learned about stablecoins.”

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These solar streetlights can withstand Category 5 hurricanes

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February 4, 2025

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These solar streetlights can withstand Category 5 hurricanes

solar streetlights
Photo: Streetleaf

Streetleaf’s solar-powered streetlights can withstand Category 5 hurricanes, and the company aims to deploy them across Florida to boost storm resilience.

Since Tampa-based Streetleaf was founded in 2019, it’s installed over 8,000 solar streetlights across the US. The company’s solar-powered streetlights are IoT smart devices connected to a remote monitoring dashboard that can identify potential problems before an outage occurs, identify current outages without the need for customer reporting, and allow for remote control of brightness settings.

The streetlights are built to remain operational even during widespread power outages. That means the lights are on when communities need them most, ensuring safety and comfort during and in the aftermath of storms.

Solar-powered lights can also be installed in communities without existing infrastructure, which increases safety for drivers and pedestrians in historically underserved areas.

Streetleaf asserts that all of its streetlights stayed on in the face of major hurricanes and tropical storms, including, most recently, Hurricanes Ian, Isalia, Debby, Helene, and Milton. They have a wind rating of 160 mph.

It comes in either 150W or 220W bifacial solar panel wattage, with a lithium iron phosphate battery wattage of either 820 or 1230 Wh and 5,200 or 7,200 lumens, respectively.

The company’s new initiative is called Shine On Florida, and it’s a call to action for Florida’s utility companies, local governments, home builders, municipalities, HOAs, and residents get its solar-powered streetlights into as many new projects as possible across the state in 2025. Streetleaf wants in on bids for everything – new developments, municipal upgrades, private projects, and so on. And once a contract is signed, Streetleaf promises to install the lights within three months.

They’re also making a smart offer for storm season. Any streetlights purchased before April 1 will be installed before the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season starts on June 1.

Liam Ryan, CEO of Streetleaf, said, “With partnerships in place across the state, Streetleaf is ready to support Florida’s efforts towards a more resilient community, providing Florida with dependable lighting through this and future hurricane seasons.”

Read more: This Florida solar farm is supplying clean energy to 12 cities

Now is a great time to begin your solar journey so your system is installed in time for those sunny spring days. If you want to make sure you find a trusted, reliable solar installer near you that offers competitive pricing, check out EnergySage, a free service that makes it easy for you to go solar. They have hundreds of pre-vetted solar installers competing for your business, ensuring you get high-quality solutions and save 20 to 30% compared to going it alone. Plus, it’s free to use and you won’t get sales calls until you select an installer and share your phone number with them.

Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisors to help you every step of the way. Get started here. –trusted affiliate partner

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Ferrari is launching its first EV later this year: Here’s a sneak peek of the electric supercar

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February 4, 2025

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Ferrari is launching its first EV later this year: Here's a sneak peek of the electric supercar

Ferrari-first-EV-2025

Ferrari looks to shake up the market with its first all-electric vehicle, which will launch later this year. Ferrari confirmed plans to launch its first EV in October as one of six new vehicles debuting in 2025. Ahead of its official debut, the new electric car was spotted testing out in public. Check out a sneak peek of it below.

Ferrari confirms plans to launch its first EV in 2025

Although the company has kept most of the details to itself, we are finally learning when we can expect to see Ferrari’s first EV.

We knew it was likely coming this year, but now it’s official. After releasing 2024 earnings, Ferrari confirmed on Wednesday it will launch six new vehicles in 2025, including its first EV.

Ferrari will unveil the electric car during its Capital Markets Day on October 9. According to CEO Benedetto Vigna, the Ferrari “elettrica” will be launched “in a unique way. “

Vigna previously said, “People buy a Ferrari because when they buy a Ferrari, they have a lot of fun,” and the brand’s first EV will be no different. The electric car has taken longer than most hoped for, but Vigna promises it will be built “the right way,” as a Ferrari should be.

Ferrari-first-EV-2025
(Source: Ferrari)

The EV model will still feature the (emulated) sounds and signature design Ferrari has built its legacy but in all-electric form.

Sources told Reuters report last year that Ferrari’s first electric car will cost at least 500,000 euros, or around $535,000. However, Vigna later said the report was “a surprise” and didn’t confirm or deny prices. The company’s CEO explained that Ferrari defines the price of a car about a month before launching it, so expect more around September.

Ferrari’s first EV testing (Source: Varryx)

With models out for testing, Ferrari’s first EV has already been spotted out in public. Last month, a video from Varryx gave us our closest look at the electric crossover yet.

You can see the electric car is finally coming together with new headlights and other design features like body panels. As the EV passes by, you can hear exhaust-like sounds, hinting at a sound system like Dodge’s electric Charger muscle car.

Ferrari-first-EV-2025
Inside Ferrari’s new e-building (Source: Ferrari)

Ferrari opened its new e-building last June, where its first EV will be built. The facility will also produce e-motors, batteries, and inverters for upcoming EV and PHEV models.

By the end of next year, Ferrari aims for 60% of sales to be EV or PHEV models. In 2024, Ferrari’s shipments consisted of 51% hybrid and 49% internal combustion engine vehicles.

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Blix Packa Genie cargo e-bike with free gear at $1,599, Worx Landroid robot mower hits new limited $469 low, Jackery, more

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February 4, 2025

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Blix Packa Genie cargo e-bike with free gear at ,599, Worx Landroid robot mower hits new limited 9 low, Jackery, more

Starting off today’s Green Deals is Blix’s Valentine’s Day sale with up to $600 in savings across three e-bikes, two of which are the newest models released months ago, but the biggest deal is on the Packa Genie Cargo e-bike with $100 in free gear at $1,599. We also have a limited Lightning deal on Worx’s Landroid S 20V Robot Lawn Mower dropping things to a new $469 low, among its other model – but don’t sit on decisions cause it’ll likely go fast. There’s also Jackery’s Explorer 100 Plus Portable Power Station that fits right in your hand at its $89 low, among other power station and solar generator deals. Lastly, we spotted the return of the one-day-only $570 low on Greenworks’ 80V three-tool mower, trimmer, and blower combo. Plus, all the other hangover Green Deals are in the links at the bottom of the page, like yesterday’s free extra battery offer on Aventon’s Pace 500.3 e-bikes, Anker’s PowerCore Reserve returning to $90, and more.

Head below for other New Green Deals we’ve found today and, of course, Electrek’s best EV buying and leasing deals. Also, check out the new Electrek Tesla Shop for the best deals on Tesla accessories.

Carry your love with you on Blix’s Packa Genie cargo e-bike with $100 in free gear at $1,599 ($600 in savings)

Blix has launched its Valentine’s Day savings with up to $600 being taken off its three e-bike offers, with the biggest discount hitting the Packa Genie Cargo e-bike for $1,599 shipped. Normally priced at $2,099 outside of sales, we’ve only seen it go lower to $1,499 a few times over 2024, most recently during Black Friday and Cyber Monday, with things keeping up at $1,699 in the time since. This sale is cutting $500 off the going rate – plus, giving you $100 worth of free running boards for the rear cargo rack – all at the second-lowest price we have tracked. As is always the case with Blix models, buying any two e-bikes together gives you an additional $200 off your order after using the promo code RIDETOGETHER at checkout.

Blix’s Packa Genie e-bike cruises into view at 20 MPH with a 40-mile travel range thanks to the combination of its 750W geared rear hub motor (peaking at 1,350W) and the 672Wh battery. There are five levels of pedal assistance to see to it that you get the full scope of its mileage, as well as a throttle for pure electric action which cuts down its expected travel range to around 25 miles.

It comes with some nice extra features too, with a full digital display that even has a USB port for charging your phone as you ride – which is always appreciated as someone who uses my phone’s GPS to navigate the city streets. There’s also puncture-resistant tires, fenders over top both of those, integrated head and taillights, a smart bell, hydraulic disc brakes, 7-speed gear shifter, as well as the obvious mounting points along the rear rack which boasts a 200-pound payload. A rear wheel net guard has even been thrown on, which is essential, in my opinion, if you plan to take any kids on the ride with you.

Blix Valentine’s Day e-bike deals:

  • Vika X Folding e-bike (new model): $1,499 (Reg. $1,799)
    • 20/28 MPH for up to 70 miles
    • features auto-shifting
  • Sol X Comfort e-bike (new model): $1,599 (Reg. $1,899)
    • 20/28 MPH for up to 70 miles
    • features auto-shifting
Worx landroid robot lawn mower

Limited Lightning deal drops Worx’s Landroid S 20V robot lawn mower to new $469 low

Amazon is offering a Lightning deal on the Worx Landroid S 20V Robotic Lawn Mower for $468.90 shipped, with 27% of the units being sold at the time of writing this. This model would normally run you $700, after falling from its original $1,000 MSRP earlier in 2024, with the most recent discount being the former $478.50 low we spotted at the top of 2025. As that rate did to its Christmas low, today’s deal comes in to beat all the discounts we’ve seen before as a 33% markdown (53% off the original MSRP), saving you $231 at a new all-time low price. It’s slightly bigger Landroid M 20V model is also benefitting from some savings at $599.99 shipped, down from $900.

The Worx Landroid robot mowers are autonomous assistants that you can rely on to tackle lawn maintenance for up to 1/8 acres on a single charge with the S 20V and up to 1/4 acres on a single charge with the M 20V. What drives these robots is an advanced AI system that keeps it on track around your yard, with a floating blade disc that will automatically lift for increased clearance through uneven terrain patches. You’ll be getting a solid array of smart controls here, which you can access through the companion app via a Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connection. On top of all its capabilities, the included batteries that power the robot also come compatible and interchangeable with Worx’s PowerShare ecosystem of tools and devices.

jackery explorer 100 plus power station

Jackery’s palm-sized Explorer 100 Plus 99Wh LiFePO4 power station falls to $89 low

Jackery’s official Amazon storefront is offering its Explorer 100 Plus Portable Power Station for $89 shipped. Normally going for $149 at full price, this rate first dropped costs back in September, which repeated again during Black Friday/Cyber Monday, most recently appearing at the start of 2025. You’re getting another shot at it today, with the 40% markdown here cutting $60 off the tag to give you the all-time lowest price we have tracked – beating out its direct pricing from Jackery’s site by $40.

Beating out many of the larger 20,000mAh to 25,000mAh power banks that sit at higher rates, Jackery’s Explorer 100 Plus provides you with a 99Wh (31,000mAh) LiFePO4 capacity in a two-pound unit. It tops off your devices with up to 128W of power output through the dual USB-C and single USB-A ports. Connecting it to a wall outlet can refill the battery to 70% in about an hour, with things taking a little longer at two hours for a full battery. There’s also the solar charging option too, with its maximum 100W solar input pushing it back to full in about two hours, or you could also connect it to your car’s auxiliary port for a three-hour recharge.

Notable Jackery power station discounts:

Notable Jackery solar generator discounts:

Greenworks 80V three-tool combo

This Greenworks mower, trimmer, blower combo gets you ready for yard duty at $570 low (Save $530, Today only)

As part of its Deals of the Day, Best Buy is offering the Greenworks 80V 21-inch Lawn Mower, 13-inch String Trimmer, and 730 Leaf Blower Combo for $569.99 shipped through the rest of the day only. Coming down from its $1,100 price tag, we mostly saw it dropping between $600 and $700 over 2024, though it did fall lower on occasion – repeating this same low rate once a month since Black Friday. It’s coming back for the rest of the day with $530 in savings at the lowest price we have tracked. You’d be hard-pressed to find this combination of tools anywhere else, with even Amazon offering a less advanced 3-tool combo as the closest comparison at $522 right now.

We’re nearly two months away from spring’s arrival, and what better way to prep for catching up on lawncare responsibilities than by taking advantage of the off-season low price on this 3-tool combo from Greenworks? The mower sports an 80V brushless motor that is powered by the included 4.0Ah battery, giving you the juice to tackle up to a 1/2 acre of land on a single charge (which can be changed out for another of the brand’s batteries for longer jobs), delivering seven different cutting heights. The 13-inch trimmer comes with the brand’s dual bump feed head to easily and effortlessly replace broken lines, with an 80-minute runtime on its low setting thanks to the battery. The leaf blower provides up to 730 CFM of airflow (reaching up to 170 MPH) with a variable speed trigger with cruise control for more effortless handling.

Best New Year EV deals!

aventon pace 500.3

Best new Green Deals landing this week

The savings this week are also continuing to a collection of other markdowns. To the same tune as the offers above, these all help you take a more energy-conscious approach to your routine. Winter means you can lock in even better off-season price cuts on electric tools for the lawn while saving on EVs and tons of other gear.

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