The Fintech Log
# Bridge

Ramp partnered with Stripe and Bridge in July 2026 to deploy stablecoin rails for business bill payments and yield-bearing stablecoin accounts funded through standard fiat bank accounts. The arrangement shows how stablecoins can be incorporated into familiar payment workflows without requiring businesses to fund every transaction with digital assets. The economics depend on more than the cost of moving a token on-chain. Stripe charges merchants 1.5% for stablecoin checkout transactions, versus its standard card-processing fee of 2.9% plus $0.30; neither figure establishes the price of Ramp’s bill-payment service. Businesses receiving fiat may also face foreign-exchange and off-ramp costs, typically 0.3% to 2.0% when converting into local banking systems. Domestic clearing networks and compliance checks remain part of end-to-end delivery. Bridge’s issuance and transfer tools, alongside its conditional U.S. trust-bank approval, illustrate the infrastructure behind those payments—but not the elimination of every payment cost.

Oct. 28, 2026 • 3 min read

Stripe confirmed in October 2026 that it plans to expand its Bridge- and Visa-powered stablecoin card issuing program from 18 initial countries to more than 100 by the end of the year. The planned rollout spans Europe, Asia-Pacific, Africa and the Middle East. It follows Stripe’s February 2025 acquisition of Bridge, whose APIs connect stablecoin transfers with fiat accounts and bank payouts. Stripe has also made Open USD available to businesses in Stripe Financial Accounts alongside USDC. Its broader stablecoin infrastructure combines Bridge’s conversion tools with Stripe’s existing payment and treasury network and embedded wallets from Privy. Lead Bank supports the card program as a financial institution partner and BIN sponsor. A separate deployment by Ramp uses Bridge APIs and Privy wallets to let businesses pay vendors in stablecoins using funds from fiat bank accounts. Together, the developments show how Stripe is assembling stablecoin services for business payments, while the planned geographic expansion remains unfinished.

Oct. 27, 2026 • 3 min read

Stripe completed its $1.1 billion acquisition of Bridge on February 4, 2025, making the stablecoin infrastructure company its largest purchase to date. The deal gives Stripe technology for moving between dollar-pegged stablecoins and traditional payment rails, while shielding customers from some of the complexity of using blockchains directly. Bridge has since launched Open Issuance, which lets fintechs, wallets and enterprises create and manage branded stablecoins. Stripe also acquired crypto wallet provider Privy in mid-2025, pairing embedded wallet creation with Bridge’s payment orchestration. The company has outlined plans extending through 2026 to scale Bridge-powered payouts and virtual accounts across more than 100 countries. Together, the moves put issuance, wallets and conversion alongside payment delivery. They do not eliminate the operational demands of stablecoins, but Bridge’s APIs are designed to handle tasks such as transaction fees, cross-chain routing and private-key custody behind a conventional developer interface.

Oct. 23, 2026 • 3 min read

Stripe has integrated Bridge into its Global Payments and Treasury Network, expanding the stablecoin infrastructure available to enterprise customers after closing its acquisition on February 4, 2025. The integration uses pre-funded liquidity pools to settle payouts in seconds while fiat payment rails reconcile separately. Stripe has also published developer documentation for routing, cross-currency conversion and settlement tracking through Bridge’s APIs across more than 10 blockchain networks. The companies have expanded their commercial tools with automated money management and stablecoin issuance APIs. Bridge’s monetisation framework includes transaction and conversion spread fees, API orchestration charges and reserve yield-sharing mechanisms associated with stablecoins such as USDB. Stripe announced the acquisition in October 2024; the deal was reported at approximately $1.1 billion. The integration gives enterprises a way to use stablecoin infrastructure for payments and treasury operations without managing each underlying network separately.

Oct. 20, 2026 • 3 min read