I think this is effectively costing Stripe nothing. I'm skimming over a lot details, but they're taking equity that is owned by employees and transferring that

I think this is effectively costing Stripe nothing. I'm skimming over a lot details, but they're taking equity that is owned by employees and transferring that to other investors. It's a way to keep employees happy since they've decided it's not a good time to IPO and they have a lot of employees with thousands or even millions of dollars locked up in illiquid stock.