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Bridge

Institution · Stablecoin issuance and orchestration

Bridge is the stablecoin issuance and orchestration platform underneath Stripe's money stack, acquired for roughly USD 1.1 billion in Stripe's largest-ever acquisition, announced October 2024 and closed February 2025. Founded in 2022 by Coinbase and Square alumni Zach Abrams and Sean Yu, Bridge sells APIs for moving, storing and accepting stablecoins, an issuance platform for launching new ones, and the plumbing behind Stripe's Stablecoin Financial Accounts. Its stablecoin transaction volume grew more than 4x year on year per Stripe's 2025 annual letter published February 2026, and its Open Issuance stack now carries the most interesting roster of third-party coins in the market.

Products and the coins on the stack

  • Orchestration. The original API business: move, store and accept stablecoins with fiat on/off-ramps, used pre-acquisition by SpaceX for treasury repatriation, and by Coinbase and Bitso.
  • Issuance. Open Issuance (30 September 2025) lets businesses launch their own stablecoins, with reserves managed via BlackRock, Fidelity and Superstate and cash at Lead Bank. Live coins include Phantom's CASH, MetaMask's mUSD, Native Markets' USDH (the winner of Hyperliquid's ticker process, built on Bridge infrastructure), and Klarna's KlarnaUSD, issued on Tempo in November 2025 as the first financial-institution coin on the stack. USDSui and USDCBL followed by April 2026.
  • USDB. Bridge's own USD stablecoin, backed 1:1 by cash and BlackRock money-market funds, backs Stablecoin Financial Account balances. Its circulating supply is not published as of August 2026.
  • Cards. The Visa partnership launched stablecoin-linked cards in Latin America in April 2025 (Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, Chile), reached 18 countries by March 2026, and targets more than 100 countries by end-2026 across Europe, APAC, Africa and the Middle East, with Phantom and MetaMask as wallet partners (Visa).
  • Networks. Supported chains expanded through April 2026 to include Tempo, Plasma, Celo and Sui, alongside Colombian peso and British pound on/off-ramps.

Licensing map

Bridge Building Inc is a FinCEN-registered money services business holding US state money transmitter licences (the company's licence page carries the current state list). In the EU, coverage of 2 July 2026 reported MiCA CASP authorisation and an EMI (e-money institution) licence in Luxembourg, passportable across the 27 member states and enabling euro stablecoin issuance and named virtual IBANs; a primary Bridge announcement has not been located and the claim rests on that coverage for now. In APAC, no MAS licence or equivalent registration has been found as of August 2026, which leaves the region's regulated stablecoin markets (Singapore under the SCS framework, Hong Kong under the Stablecoins Ordinance) outside Bridge's current perimeter, a gap worth watching as the Visa card programme expands into APAC.

Recent activity

  • 2 Jul 2026MiCA CASP and Luxembourg EMI authorisations reported, passportable EU-wide (Crowdfund Insider).
  • 29 Apr 2026Network support extended to Tempo, Plasma, Celo and Sui; USDG, CASH, USDSui and USDCBL live on the platform (Stripe).
  • 3 Mar 2026Visa card programme expansion announced from 18 countries toward 100+ by end-2026 (Visa).
  • 25 Nov 2025KlarnaUSD announced, issued through Bridge on Tempo (The Block).
  • 30 Sep 2025Open Issuance launched with Phantom's CASH first (Stripe).

Open questions

  • Primary confirmation of the Luxembourg MiCA and EMI authorisations.
  • USDB circulating supply, which no tracker verifies.
  • Whether APAC card expansion proceeds without local stablecoin licensing, and through which regulatory route.