Stripe-Owned Bridge Secures Trust Charter
Bridge, a company owned by Stripe, has acquired a trust charter, enabling it to operate stablecoin services under enhanced regulatory oversight. This move allows Bridge to offer regulated, bank-like services for digital assets. The development suggests the next phase of stablecoin adoption will be defined by compliance and interoperability with traditional financial workflows.
- The conditional approval for a national trust bank charter was granted by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), a federal regulator. This charter will allow Bridge to provide digital asset custody, issue stablecoins, and manage the reserves backing them under direct federal oversight. - Stripe completed its acquisition of Bridge in February 2025 for a reported $1.1 billion, making it the payments giant's largest purchase to date. Bridge was founded in 2022 by Zach Abrams and Sean Yu, both former employees of cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase. - This move aligns Bridge with the regulatory framework established by the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act, which was passed into law in 2025 to create federal oversight for stablecoin issuers. - Bridge joins several other major digital asset firms in securing this type of conditional approval from the OCC. Competitors like Circle, Ripple, Paxos, and Fidelity Digital Assets also received similar approvals in late 2025. - The charter enables key partnerships, such as with international B2B payments company Payoneer, which plans to use Bridge's infrastructure to launch its own stablecoin offerings. - This is a core component of Stripe's broader strategy to use stablecoins to simplify global money movement and overcome the challenges of market-by-market expansion. In May 2025, Stripe launched Stablecoin Financial Accounts for businesses in over 100 countries. - Traditional banking trade groups, including the Bank Policy Institute and the Independent Community Bankers of America, have formally opposed the OCC granting these charters to fintech and crypto firms. They argue it allows companies to offer bank-like products under a less stringent regulatory framework.
