Stripe buys Bridge for $1.1B, adds stablecoin rails

Stripe acquired Bridge in February 2025 for $1.1 billion. Bridge is an API-first stablecoin infrastructure platform that lets businesses receive, store, convert, issue and spend stablecoins while handling compliance, reserve management and blockchain connections. The Bridge platform is powering stablecoin features across more than 5 million Stripe merchants and remains available as a standalone developer product.

Bridge was founded in 2022. Its single API abstracts multiple blockchains, token standards and jurisdictional compliance requirements. The platform includes Stablecoin Financial Accounts for holding and moving tokens in more than 100 countries, an orchestration layer that routes value between fiat, stablecoins and on-chain rails, and built-in compliance automation covering AML checks and Travel Rule obligations.

In September 2025 Bridge launched Open Issuance, a white-label product that allows businesses to create branded stablecoins. Reserves for Open Issuance are managed through institutional partners including BlackRock, Fidelity and Superstate. Issuers receive about 3% to 4% annual yield on reserve assets invested in U.S. Treasuries. Bridge also supports programmatic Visa card issuance that links stablecoin balances to cards accepted at over 150 million merchants.

The platform provides a self-serve sandbox for engineering teams to prototype integrations before commercial negotiation. The single API is designed to remove the need for separate integrations for custody, minting, settlement and compliance. Stripe has integrated Bridge into its own Stablecoin Financial Accounts, Open Issuance offering and card products. Bridge continues to operate under its brand for customers that do not use Stripe.

Bridge lists commercial use cases that include fintechs and neobanks seeking faster cross-border settlement or branded stablecoins, payroll and contractor payment services needing dollar-denominated rails without correspondent banking, and marketplaces aiming to reduce forex costs and settlement times. Live deployments cited by the company include Flipcash’s USDF on Solana and MoneyGram’s MGUSD. In the MoneyGram deployment Bridge acted as a regulated issuer compatible with the federal stablecoin licensing framework known as the GENIUS Act.

Key partners in Bridge’s stack include Stripe for distribution, Visa for card network access, and asset managers BlackRock and Fidelity for reserve management. Bridge’s commercial model combines API usage fees, revenue-share arrangements for Open Issuance and the economics of reserve yield captured through custodial reserve management. Public enterprise pricing is not disclosed; the developer sandbox is available for free and commercial terms are negotiated based on volume and product type.

The company faces several operational and market issues. Developers and businesses must choose between the Bridge standalone API and Stripe’s native stablecoin features while the integration model evolves, creating onboarding ambiguity for some users. Public attestations and audit disclosures for individual branded stablecoins are less standardized than the disclosure practices used by some other providers. Custodial reserve management means issuing businesses do not hold direct control of reserve assets. Ongoing expansion of Stripe’s native stablecoin features could affect demand for the standalone Bridge product.