Bridge is Stripe's infrastructure company for accepting, holding, moving and issuing stablecoins, as well as for embedded wallets and card programmes. Stripe acquired Bridge in February 2025 for approximately $1.1bn.
On 12 February 2026 the OCC granted preliminary conditional approval to Bridge National Trust Bank. The decision allows the bank to continue organising subject to capital, governance, liquidity and other conditions; it is not final approval and does not mean the bank has begun operations.
Key parameters of Bridge:
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| Type | Stablecoin infrastructure: accepting, holding, moving and issuing stablecoins, wallets, card programmes; founded 2022 |
| Owner | Stripe — announced October 2024, closed 5 February 2025 at ≈$1.1bn |
| Bank charter | Preliminary conditional OCC approval, 12 Feb 2026 (CD #1365); conditions: $45m capital, $27.5m liquid assets, 180-day OpEx buffer; not final |
| Products | Orchestration (single API, 10+ blockchains), Open Issuance (from 1 Oct 2025, reserves via BlackRock/Fidelity/Superstate), Wallets, Cards with Visa/Stripe Issuing; own token USDB |
| Pricing | No public price list; integrator benchmark ≈10 bps + network fees, ACH nearly free, SWIFT $15–30 per wire |
| Geography | Over 190 supported countries; prohibited list includes Russia, Belarus, Iran, China, Japan, Algeria, Tunisia |
| Licensing stack | Money transmitter licences in 48 US states plus a Polish VASP; regime framework is the GENIUS Act |
Company, Stripe acquisition and OCC application
Bridge was founded in 2022 by Zach Abrams and Sean Yu, both alumni of Coinbase and Square, with Brex also on their record. The initial model focused on a low-level API through which businesses needing stablecoin functionality could accept and move stablecoins without building their own crypto infrastructure or full technology and licensing stack.
Before the deal the company had raised $58m: a $40m Series A in August 2024 led by Sequoia and Ribbit Capital with participation from Index Ventures and Haun Ventures, at a valuation of ≈$200m. By then Bridge was processing over $5bn of payments on an annualised basis for SpaceX, Coinbase and Strike, and its licensing stack included money transmitter licences in 48 states and a Polish VASP.
In October 2024 Stripe announced the acquisition, and on 5 February 2025 the deal closed at ≈$1.1bn — a record for a buyer that itself processes over $1.4trn of payments a year and was valued at ≈$91.5bn in a tender in February 2025. By May 2025, at the Sessions conference, Stripe was already showing a product line built on Bridge's infrastructure.
In October 2025 Bridge applied for a national trust charter. Four months later the OCC issued preliminary conditional approval; the company must satisfy the regulator's conditions before any bank can begin operations.
Products and pricing
The line-up at bridge.xyz is assembled from four blocks:
- Orchestration — accepting, holding and moving stablecoins through a single API: conversions between USDC, USDT, EURC and fiat, payouts via ACH and Same Day ACH, SEPA Instant, the UK's Faster Payments, Brazil's PIX, Mexico's SPEI and SWIFT. Over 10 blockchains are supported — from Ethereum and Solana to Stellar, Tron and Tempo, with Plasma, Celo and Sui added in the spring of 2026.
- Issuance — the Open Issuance platform, launched on 1 October 2025: the issuer sets its own reserve split between cash for instant redemption and short-dated treasuries for yield, with placement through BlackRock, Fidelity and Superstate. Mint and burn are free, the coins are interchangeable with each other and with USDB, and a launch takes a matter of days.
- Wallets — turnkey custodial wallets, with gas and on-chain security handled on the platform's side.
- Cards — card programmes with Visa and Stripe Issuing: a purchase is debited from the stablecoin balance, the cards are accepted in 150 countries, interchange is shared with the developer, and FX carries no markup. By the spring of 2026 the programmes were running in roughly 30 countries across the US, Latin America and Africa, with the EU and APAC announced for 2026; clients include Zepz/Sendwave with 9m users, Phantom, Airtm and Chipper Cash.
One component of the product suite is Bridge's token, USDB: the reserves are held in cash and short-dated BlackRock money market funds, conversion into USDC and back is free, and Bridge returns most of the reserve income to the developer as rewards. Stripe's Stablecoin Financial Accounts have operated on Bridge's infrastructure in 101 countries since May 2025 — a dollar balance in USDB or USDC with account details for ACH and SEPA.
Pricing as of August 2026: there is no public price list, and the pricing page in the documentation points to sales@bridge.xyz. Benchmarks from integrators put it at ≈10 basis points plus network fees for moving stablecoins; ACH payouts are almost free, and a SWIFT wire costs $15–30. On top of that the platform gives the client its own monetisation: developer fees, flat or as a percentage on each transaction, paid out on the 5th of the month, plus a share of the reserve income.
Competitive landscape
On the payments side, Bridge is compared with BVNK, Conduit, Zerohash, Thunes, Fireblocks, Circle Payments Network and Paxos on licence perimeter, where the money sits, coins, reach and price in the B2B stablecoin infrastructure table in the neobanks guide; it is the only one of the eight with a pending national trust-bank charter and its own issuance platform. The white-label issuance market had become crowded by 2026. The M0 protocol separates token logic from reserve custody — it was in tandem with M0 that Bridge issued mUSD for MetaMask in August 2025. Brale sells issuance on its own MTL licences under a revenue-share model across more than 20 networks; Agora builds branded coins on top of the shared AUSD liquidity and raised a $50m Series A from Paradigm in July 2025; the veteran Paxos runs PYUSD for PayPal.
The alternative to renting is your own PPSI (permitted payment stablecoin issuer) status under the GENIUS Act: draft implementing rules from the OCC and the FDIC appeared over the winter and spring of 2026, and the hard regime banning unlicensed issuance is expected by the start of 2027. That means control and the full economics of the reserves, at the cost of capital, time and continuous supervision. Bridge's advantages are distribution through Stripe and the possibility, after satisfying OCC conditions, of moving some services into a national trust-bank perimeter.
Clients, availability and limitations
Bridge is used by payment platforms, wallets, fintech companies and international services to embed stablecoin functions. Availability to an end user depends on the partner platform, jurisdiction and product. Partnerships widen the reach: Payoneer, with nearly 2m clients, announced stablecoin features using Bridge's infrastructure on 17 February 2026 with a start in the second quarter, and in August 2026 Bridge was integrated into agentic commerce settlement on XDC.
A separate use case is the issuance of branded stablecoins. Examples include mUSD from MetaMask, USDsui from Sui (November 2025), KlarnaUSD on the Tempo blockchain (announced in November 2025, rolling out in 2026), Phantom CASH for over 15m wallet users, and MGUSD from MoneyGram on Stellar (June 2026), aimed at the network's 60m customers. The reserve terms, the share of reserve income and the balance sheet on which holders' funds are recorded should be reviewed.
Geographic availability is restricted. Bridge accepts clients from over 190 countries, but the prohibited list is broad: Russia, Belarus, Iran and other sanctioned jurisdictions, as well as China, Japan, Algeria and Tunisia; within the United States a principal address in New York State is not permitted. KYB for companies and KYC for individuals run through the API or ready-made links. An operating company in a supported jurisdiction does not remove the obligation to disclose ultimate beneficial owners, source of funds and the group's actual business and geographic connections.
Preliminary OCC approval and legal structure
The charter timeline: the OCC application in October 2025, preliminary conditional approval on 12.02.2026, Corporate Decision CD #1365. The approved perimeter of Bridge National Trust Bank: issuance of dollar stablecoins, fiduciary custody of digital assets, collateral trustee services, and orchestration and management of third-party issuers' reserves. The parent is Bridge Ventures LLC, a Stripe subsidiary; the site is New York.
The decision sets the following conditions: a minimum of $45m in tier 1 capital, $27.5m in highly liquid assets, a liquidity buffer covering 180 days of operating expenses, OCC sign-off on senior management, and bringing the business into line with the requirements of the GENIUS Act. The bank remains a trust bank, without deposits or lending in the sense of the Bank Holding Company Act.
The technical infrastructure is based on the API: unified endpoints for transfers, virtual accounts and liquidation addresses, ready-made KYC links, and a Route Explorer with a map of currency pairs. A distinct detail of 2026 is Tempo, the payments L1 incubated by Stripe and Paradigm: KlarnaUSD and Deel's DLUSD operate there, combining the token, payment infrastructure and acquiring within a single group.
White-label issuance allocates functions between Bridge, the brand owner and other providers. It does not remove the need to determine which entity is the legal issuer, who owes redemption, where reserves are held and which party performs customer and transaction controls. Other digital-asset companies have also applied for or received conditional approval for national trust charters: in December 2025 conditional approvals went to Circle, Ripple, Paxos, BitGo and Fidelity Digital Assets, and in January 2026 to Nubank, so competition among licensed infrastructure providers will only broaden.
Regulation and status
Status as of August 2026: the bank is in organisation, there is no final approval, and the OCC has published no timeline. There is already a benchmark for the procedure's duration: Circle progressed from conditional approval to final approval on 10 July 2026, so the procedure takes months. Issuance of USDB and white-label coins meanwhile continues on Bridge's existing licensing stack — MTL licences and partner structures.
The frame is set by the GENIUS Act, the federal law on payment stablecoins signed in July 2025, against which Bridge has publicly declared itself GENIUS ready. A final national trust charter would place the approved trust activities under direct OCC supervision. Until then Bridge continues to operate through its existing licences and partner structures.
Q/A
What is a white-label stablecoin from Bridge?
It is a coin under the client's brand on Bridge's infrastructure: issuance, reserves and compliance stay on Bridge's side, while the product and distribution stay on the client's side. That is how mUSD from MetaMask, USDsui from Sui, KlarnaUSD and MGUSD from MoneyGram are built. Reserves are placed through BlackRock, Fidelity and Superstate, most of their income is returned to the partner issuer, and a launch takes days.
What does the OCC decision of 12.02.2026 mean?
The OCC granted preliminary approval with conditions: Bridge National Trust Bank may organise itself, but before starting operations it must satisfy the requirements of Corporate Decision CD #1365 — from $45m in capital to sign-off on its executives. The charter exists only in documents; the bank is being established. Final approval is the next stage; for Circle the same path took about seven months.
How much do Bridge's services cost?
There is no public price list as of August 2026: the pricing page in the documentation refers enquiries to the sales team. According to integrators, the benchmark is around 10 basis points plus network fees; ACH payouts are almost free, and SWIFT costs $15–30 per wire. The platform also enables the client to earn transaction-based developer fees and a share of the reserve income from USDB or from the client's own coin. The contract should distinguish the platform fee from the FX spread.
Can you work with Bridge from Russia or Belarus?
Not directly: both countries are on Bridge's prohibited list, along with sanctioned jurisdictions, China and Japan. Over 190 countries are supported, including most EU member states, the United Kingdom, the UAE and almost all of Latin America. The workable scheme for international groups is onboarding through an operating company in a supported jurisdiction with transparent beneficiaries; Bridge runs sanctions checks at the KYB level.
Why does Stripe need a banking charter if Bridge was already operating?
A federal trust charter provides a single national perimeter and direct OCC supervision in addition to individual state licences. For corporate partners it is an argument for trust; for the regulator it is transparency of reserves under the GENIUS Act. It also creates the possibility of bank-grade custody services and management of other issuers' coins — which is already written into the bank's approved perimeter.