Original author: KarenZ, Foresight News
After spending $1.1 billion to acquire the stablecoin payment platform Bridge in October 2024, Stripe officially announced the launch of a stablecoin financial account on May 8, aiming to provide global companies with more efficient and convenient cross-border payment and fund management solutions, further consolidating its position as a global fintech leader.
So, what stablecoins does Stripes stablecoin financial account support? What is the composition of its underlying assets? What countries or regions does its business cover? From the early exploration of Bitcoin payments to todays stablecoin strategy, what is Stripes layout in the field of cryptocurrency? This article will take you to find out.
Stripe Stablecoin Financial Account: Defining Borderless Finance
According to Stripes official documentation, stablecoin financial accounts allow users to hold USDC and USDB stablecoin balances and send and receive funds through stablecoins and traditional financial channels (such as ACH, SEPA, and wire transfers), which means that funds in stablecoin balances can be transferred to external bank accounts or crypto wallets. If the recipient is an external bank account, the amount received will be automatically converted based on the current exchange rate, greatly improving the convenience and flexibility of fund circulation.
Stripe also revealed that it will gradually support more types of stablecoins in the account in the future. The technical support for this service comes from the Bridge platform acquired by Stripe last year. Bridge focuses on the construction of stablecoin infrastructure, which can help companies seamlessly integrate cryptocurrency technology and provide guarantees for the operation of Stripes stablecoin financial account.
At the level of stablecoin custody, Bridge plays a key role. Currently, Stripe stablecoin accounts support USDC (issued by Circle) and the closed-loop stablecoin USDB issued by Bridge. It is worth noting that USDB is not publicly available and is pegged 1:1 to the US dollar. Its underlying assets are composed of US dollars and BlackRock short-term money market funds.
As Stripe executives said at Stripe Sessions 2025, stablecoins can truly enable borderless finance. By comparing the growth of payment transaction volume in the first two years of Stripe’s establishment with the first two years of Bridge’s establishment, we can find that Bridge has shown a more significant exponential growth trend, which also indirectly confirms the huge potential of stablecoins.
The author observed from the API call information in the Bridge USDB document that USDB is located on the Solana blockchain, and Bridge is responsible for minting, destroying and holding stablecoin reserves.
It is worth mentioning that Bridge also supports the creation of custom stablecoins, including chain selection, token name, and reserve strategy. Bridge will distribute a portion of the proceeds to USDB and Bridge custom stablecoin holders at the end of each month. The rewards will be minted in the form of new tokens.
However, Bridge also stated in an update a month ago that Bridge stablecoins (USDB and custom stablecoins) currently support Solana and Base networks, and will be launched in Polygon, Ethereum, Optimism, and Arbitrum. At the same time, Bridge stablecoins are always backed by 1:1 equivalent U.S. dollar value. The underlying includes short-term U.S. Treasury bonds, overnight U.S. Treasury repurchase agreements, money market funds, and cash. The portfolio is held in separate accounts to protect the rights of token holders and is managed by BlackRock, Fidelity, and Apex partners.
In terms of service coverage, Stripes stablecoin financial accounts are currently open to corporate users in 101 countries or regions, mainly in Latin America, Africa, Asian countries mainly in Central Asia/South Asia and Southeast Asia, the Middle East (such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar), Oceania, and European countries mainly in non-EU small economies or offshore financial centers. These regions are mainly developing countries, emerging markets and small economies, which usually have high demand for dollarization, strong demand for cross-border payments, a relatively loose regulatory environment, insufficient traditional financial infrastructure or high inflation. Stripes stablecoin accounts can provide low-cost and efficient payment and fund management solutions for these regions.
However, countries or regions such as China, Hong Kong, the United States, core EU countries, the United Kingdom, India, Russia, Japan, Canada and Australia have not been included in the support list due to strict regulatory requirements, mature financial markets or geopolitical factors.
Stripes crypto layout: from payment to ecosystem construction
Stripes layout in the field of cryptocurrency did not happen overnight, but was the result of long-term exploration and deep cultivation.
2014-2018: A brief attempt at Bitcoin payments
In 2014, Stripe became the first major payment company to support Bitcoin payments, hoping that Bitcoin would become a global, decentralized medium of exchange to solve the problems of low credit card penetration or high transaction fees.
In 2018, due to the long confirmation time of Bitcoin transactions, high fees, excessive volatility, and the decline in customer willingness to accept Bitcoin, and the fact that Stripe believed that Bitcoin had evolved to be more suitable as an asset rather than a means of exchange, it announced the termination of Bitcoin payment support.
Despite the end of Bitcoin support, Stripe remains optimistic about cryptocurrencies and said it will pay attention to the development of emerging technologies and faster payment methods such as Lightning Network, Stellar (in which Stripe once made a seed investment), and Ethereum.
2019-2021: Cautious exploration
In 2019, Stripe briefly participated in Facebooks Libra (later renamed Diem) project, but withdrew due to regulatory pressure, showing its cautious attitude towards the encryption field.
In 2021, Stripe formed a new encryption team to develop Stripes encryption strategy and promote the combined development of payment and Web3.
In November 2021, Paradigm co-founder and managing partner Matt Huang joined the Stripe board of directors. Stripe co-founder and CEO Patrick Collison said at the time: Few people understand cryptocurrency better than Matt, especially its potential for global Internet companies.
2022: Full Return to Crypto Market
In March 2022, Stripe launched a series of products designed to provide customers with tools and APIs that make it easier to buy and store crypto tokens, exchange them for cash, trade NFTs, and handle compliance workflows such as KYC. Stripes support page states that the companys products will support users in 180 countries/regions to purchase more than 135 cryptocurrencies using fiat currencies.
In April 2022, Stripe added support for cryptocurrencies to its programmatic (API-based) payment platform Connect, and Twitter will become the first platform to allow users to pay with cryptocurrencies using the platform.
2024-2025: Accelerating Stablecoin Strategy
Stripes crypto ambitions accelerated significantly in 2024, with a focus on stablecoins and consolidating its position in Web3 payments through acquisitions and product innovation.
In April 2024, Stripe allowed customers to accept cryptocurrency payments, but initially only supported USDC stablecoins, covering Solana, Ethereum, and Polygon.
In October 2024, Paxos launched its new stablecoin payment platform, and Stripe was the first customer to use the new solution. Stripes Pay with Crypto product is powered by Paxos stablecoin payment infrastructure, making it easier for merchants to accept stablecoin payments.
In October 2024, Stripe acquired the stablecoin payment platform Bridge for US$1.1 billion. Bridge is known as the Web3 version of Stripe.
On April 30, 2025, Bridge partnered with Visa to launch a stablecoin card issuance product. Developers using Bridge can now programmatically issue stablecoin-related Visa cards in multiple countries through a single API integration. Businesses and individuals can use their stablecoin balances for daily purchases anywhere Visa is accepted. When cardholders shop, Bridge deducts funds from their stablecoin balances and converts them into fiat currency, enabling merchants to receive payments in local currency like other transactions.
On May 7, 2025, at Stripe Sessions 2025, Stripe launched a stablecoin financial account. Stripe also announced an expanded partnership with Ramp, an integrated financial operations platform, to launch a corporate card based on stablecoins and integrated with spending management software, providing companies with faster settlement, lower costs, built-in currency fluctuation protection, and seamless card issuance. Specifically, companies can use local currency to inject funds into the Ramp wallet and then convert them into stablecoins, or deposit stablecoins directly. Cardholders only need to pay in local legal currency, and merchants can receive legal currency. Funds are held at the equivalent of US dollars to avoid depreciation of local currencies.
Future Outlook
From its early attempts at Bitcoin to its current comprehensive layout centered on stablecoin financial accounts, Stripes development in the crypto space has accelerated the integration of traditional finance and the crypto economy and is driving the mainstreaming of stablecoins.
Through the $1.1 billion acquisition of Bridge and the launch of stablecoin financial accounts covering 101 countries, Stripe has not only effectively solved many pain points in cross-border payments, but also provided important dollarization tools for emerging markets. Its strategy focuses on the low-cost and high-efficiency characteristics of stablecoins, combining Bridges technical advantages with Stripes own global payment network, which has established a solid leadership position in the field of crypto payments.
As global financial regulators gradually improve their regulatory framework for stablecoins, and traditional financial giants such as Visa and PayPal become increasingly open to stablecoins, stablecoins are moving from the margins to the mainstream. The stablecoin financial account launched by Stripe provides companies with a low-friction, high-efficiency global payment solution, driving the global financial system towards a more efficient, convenient, and inclusive direction.
