Zach Abrams, architect of Stripe’s $1.1B stablecoin deal

Zach Abrams sold his stablecoin infrastructure startup Bridge to Stripe for roughly $1.1 billion and is now the founding CEO of Open Standard, the consortium issuing Open USD with more than 140 partners including Visa, Mastercard, BlackRock, Stripe and Coinbase.

Abrams cofounded Bridge in April 2022 with Sean Yu after the company shifted away from an initial NFT payments product. Bridge launched orchestration APIs in 2023 that let companies move, convert and accept stablecoins through a single integration without requiring direct interaction with blockchains. The platform connected issuers, multiple blockchains, local payment rails and compliance layers.

Bridge raised about $58 million from investors including Sequoia, Index Ventures, Ridge and Haun Ventures. Customers included firms using the service for cross-border payouts and for providing dollar-denominated accounts in high-inflation markets. SpaceX used the platform to repatriate Starlink revenue, and fintechs in Latin America and Africa used Bridge to offer dollar access to customers.

Stripe announced the acquisition of Bridge in October 2024 for roughly $1.1 billion and completed the transaction in February 2025 after regulatory review. After the acquisition, Bridge’s team and technology continued work inside Stripe. Stripe reported Bridge’s transaction volume rose more than fourfold in 2025, while overall stablecoin payment volume doubled that year.

Under Stripe, Bridge products included USDB and an Open Issuance platform that allows companies to create branded stablecoins on the same infrastructure. Stripe also acquired wallet infrastructure firm Privy and supported the development of Tempo, a payments-focused Layer 1 blockchain, as part of its broader stablecoin and payments strategy.

Open Standard, announced June 30, 2026, lists more than 140 participants spanning card networks, banks, asset managers and technology firms, including American Express, BNY Mellon, U.S. Bank and Huntington Bank. Open USD launched as a blockchain-agnostic stablecoin on Base, Ethereum, Solana and Tempo, with Aptos joining as a launch partner.

The Open USD operating model lets businesses mint and redeem the stablecoin at no cost. Reserve proceeds flow back to consortium partners rather than to a single issuer, and Open Standard retains a management fee for operating the system. Reserve management is handled by traditional finance firms that already manage large dollar balances.

Abrams’s career includes a degree from Duke University, early work in leveraged finance and private equity, and founding the peer-to-peer payments app Evenly, which Square acquired in 2013. He worked in product roles at Square and Remind, led consumer product at Coinbase during 2017, and served as chief product officer at Brex from 2019 until April 2022. After founding Bridge and selling it to Stripe, he took an interim CEO role at Open Standard while Bridge technology remains inside Stripe’s payments stack.

Abrams has written that “Stablecoins are the next platform for money.” Open Standard will coordinate banks, card networks and regulators as it rolls out Open USD later in 2026. Bridge’s Open Issuance capability provides a path for fintechs and businesses to issue branded stablecoins using the same underlying infrastructure.