Bridge, the stablecoin infrastructure company acquired by payments giant Stripe, has applied for a national bank trust charter with the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), co-founder Zach Abrams said Wednesday.
The move would put the company under federal regulatory oversight if approved by the regulator. Through the bank, the company would provide services including custody, stablecoin issuance and stablecoin reserve management, Abrams said.
“We have long believed that stablecoins will be a central, regulated financial component,” Zach Abrams said in a Tuesday X post. “This regulatory infrastructure will allow us to tokenize trillions of dollars and make this future possible.”
Bridge is joining a frenzy of stablecoin issuers like Circle (CRCL), Ripple and Paxos that are seeking federal regulatory oversight similar to that of traditional financial firms as the stablecoin sector booms. Stablecoins, cryptocurrencies pegged to fiat money like the US dollar, are a nearly $300 billion asset class and are becoming increasingly popular for cross-border payments. Growth has been aided by the enactment of the GENIUS Act, which improves regulatory clarity for the sector in the US.
Stripe earlier this month introduced its Open Issuance service that helps companies launch their own stablecoin using Bridge infrastructure. Phantom’s CASH, MetaMask’s mUSD, and Hyperliquid’s USDH stablecoins rely on Bridge as an issuing partner. Stripe acquired Bridge for $1.1 billion last year, making it an integral part of the company’s growing ambition in blockchain-powered payments.
