For context, read this profile alongside the financial-licensing map and the crypto-wealth infrastructure guide. It is a case study in stablecoin payment infrastructure under a federal charter, not a product recommendation. Primary source: Bridge.
In 2026 stablecoins moved for good out of the crypto sandbox and into the big payments industry, and Stripe moved first. Its instrument is Bridge: an acquisition for ≈$1.1bn, the largest in the company's history, and the shortest path a fintech has taken to a federal banking charter.
On 12 February 2026 the OCC signed a preliminary conditional approval for Bridge National Trust Bank — Corporate Decision CD #1365; the decision made the news on 17 February. Stablecoin issuance formally entered the perimeter of national bank supervision, and that changes the calculus for anyone thinking about a coin of their own.
Background
Bridge was founded in 2022 by Zach Abrams and Sean Yu, both alumni of Coinbase and Square, with Brex also on their record. The founding idea: a low-level API through which a business could accept and move stablecoins without its own crypto infrastructure. Investors promptly christened the project the Stripe for stablecoins — and turned out to be more literal than they expected.
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.
After that the story accelerated: 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 rails.
The final turn is the banking one. In October 2025 Bridge filed an application for a national trust charter, received preliminary approval four months later, and is now building its own trust bank in New York.
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.
The anchor of the construction is Bridge's own token, USDB: the reserves sit 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. A Stripe layer runs on top: Stablecoin Financial Accounts 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
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 trump card against that backdrop is a double one: Stripe's distribution across millions of merchants, and a charter that turns renting rails into a banking service.
What it means for the client
The mass-market effect will arrive of its own accord: stablecoin features are spreading across Stripe's merchants without separate onboarding — from checkout to treasury accounts in 101 countries. Partnerships widen the reach: Payoneer, with nearly 2m clients, announced stablecoin features on Bridge's rails on 17 February 2026 with a start in the second quarter, and in August 2026 Bridge was plugged into agentic commerce settlement on XDC.
The direct interest for client groups is issuing a coin of their own. The catalogue of cases is already telling: 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. What is worth checking is the reserve terms, the share of reserve income, and whose balance sheet holders' funds actually sit on.
Onboarding runs into geography. 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 closed off. KYB for companies and KYC for individuals run through the API or ready-made links, so groups with roots in closed countries are left with the route through an operating company in a supported jurisdiction with a transparent beneficial ownership perimeter.
Under the hood
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 conditions of the decision read like a checklist for a future applicant: 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. Recorded separately: the bank remains a trust bank, without deposits or lending in the sense of the Bank Holding Company Act.
Technically everything is assembled around 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 live there, and the coin-rail-acquiring vertical closes inside a single group.
For the builder the main precedent lies elsewhere: white-label issuance removes the question of whether you need an issuer licence of your own — the token is rented together with Bridge's balance sheet and compliance. The context of the wave reinforces the conclusion: 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 rails 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 pipeline: Circle travelled 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 national trust bank charter embeds the company in the future regime in advance: reserves, reporting and supervision already at the federal standard.
FAQ
What is a white-label stablecoin from Bridge?
It is a coin under your brand on Bridge's infrastructure: issuance, reserves and compliance stay on Bridge's side, while the product and distribution stay on yours. 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 on paper; the bank is being built. Final approval is the next milestone; 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 you 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. Separately, the platform lets the client earn as well: developer fees on transactions and a share of the reserve income from USDB or from your own coin. In the contract it is worth separating 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 on top of a patchwork of 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 opens the road to bank-grade custody services and management of other issuers' coins — which is already written into the bank's approved perimeter.