Bridge bet stablecoin rails would go legit: Stripe paid $1.1B, then came an OCC charter

An API platform that lets companies issue, hold, move, and settle stablecoins to and from fiat without touching blockchain complexity themselves.

Stablecoins would become a mainstream payment rail, and businesses would pay for compliant issuance-and-settlement infrastructure rather than build it themselves.

$40M Series A raised August 2024 from Sequoia, Ribbit Capital, Index, and Haun Ventures, months before the acquisition.

Founded in 2022 by Coinbase alumni Zach Abrams and Sean Yu, who saw businesses paying high fees for slow cross-border transfers while stablecoins moved value in minutes. They built infrastructure for other companies to accept and settle stablecoins rather than launching a consumer product.

By 2024 Bridge claimed $5B in annualized volume. Stripe announced the $1.1B acquisition in October 2024 and closed it in February 2025 after regulatory review. In July 2025 the US enacted the GENIUS Act, the first federal stablecoin law, turning compliance into a product feature. Stripe and Bridge launched Open Issuance in September 2025, letting customers issue branded stablecoins on Bridge's regulated rails.

Acquired by Stripe for $1.1B (completed February 2025), the largest deal in its history. Bridge now runs as Stripe's stablecoin unit and in February 2026 received conditional OCC approval to establish a national trust bank.

Businesses wanted stablecoin benefits without blockchain operations, so a full-stack infrastructure layer could charge for the whole journey.

Founder credibility mattered: two Coinbase alumni raised from Sequoia and Ribbit, and sold to a payments giant that shared their 'stablecoins as rails' thesis.

Staying on the compliance side of the line pre-2025 looked slow but meant the GENIUS Act and MiCA turned Bridge's cost center into its moat.

Not issuing a proprietary coin kept Bridge neutral infrastructure, making it acquirable by Stripe without antitrust or conflict baggage.

Regulatory clarity rarely shrinks a market; it reprices compliance as a feature. The winner was not the boldest issuer but the plumbing that made regulated stablecoins an API call.

As of September 2026 Bridge runs as Stripe's stablecoin unit with conditional OCC approval for a national trust bank, which would authorize custody, issuance, and reserve management. Its Luxembourg unit issues EURR, a MiCA-compliant euro stablecoin live since August 26, 2026 in Denmark, Poland, and Portugal, backed 1:1 at regulated banks. Stripe credits Bridge for roughly $400B of stablecoin volume in 2025, 60% of it B2B.