Written by: KarenZ, Foresight News
After spending $1.1 billion to acquire the stablecoin payment platform Bridge in October 2024, Stripe officially announced the launch of stablecoin financial accounts on May 8, aiming to provide global businesses with more efficient and convenient cross-border payment and fund management solutions, further consolidating its position as a global leader in financial technology.
So, what stablecoins does the Stripe stablecoin financial account actually support? What is the composition of its underlying assets? Which countries or regions does its business coverage encompass? From the early exploration of Bitcoin payments to today's stablecoin strategy, what is Stripe's layout in the cryptocurrency field? This article will take you to explore.
Stripe Stablecoin Financial Account: Defining Borderless Finance
According to Stripe's official documentation, stablecoin financial accounts allow users to hold USDC and USDB stablecoin balances, and to send and receive funds via stablecoins and traditional financial channels (such as ACH, SEPA, and wire transfers). This means that funds from the stablecoin balance can be transferred to external bank accounts or cryptocurrency wallets. If the recipient is an external bank account, the received amount will be automatically converted according to the current exchange rate, greatly enhancing the convenience and flexibility of fund transfers.
Stripe also revealed that it will gradually support more types of stablecoins in this account in the future. The technical support for this service comes from the Bridge platform acquired by Stripe last year. Bridge focuses on the infrastructure for stablecoins, enabling businesses to seamlessly integrate cryptocurrency technology, providing assurance for the operation of Stripe's stablecoin financial accounts.
In the realm of stablecoin custody, Bridge plays a crucial role. Currently, Stripe's stablecoin accounts support USDC (issued by Circle) and the closed-loop stablecoin USDB issued by Bridge. Notably, USDB is not publicly sold and is pegged to the US dollar at a 1:1 ratio. The underlying assets consist of US dollars and BlackRock short-term money market funds.
As Stripe executives mentioned at Stripe Sessions 2025, stablecoins can truly achieve borderless finance. By comparing the payment transaction growth in the first two years of Stripe's establishment with that of Bridge, we find that Bridge has shown a more significant exponential growth trend, which also indirectly confirms the enormous potential of stablecoins.
The author observed in the API call information in the Bridge USDB documentation that USDB is located on the Solana blockchain, with Bridge responsible for minting, burning, and holding stablecoin reserves.
It is worth mentioning that Bridge also supports the creation of custom stablecoins, including chain selection, token names, and reserve strategies. At the end of each month, Bridge distributes a portion of the profits to USDB and Bridge custom stablecoin holders. Rewards will be minted in the form of new tokens.
However, Bridge also mentioned in an update a month prior that Bridge stablecoins (USDB and custom stablecoins) currently support Solana and Base networks, with launches in Polygon, Ethereum, Optimism, and Arbitrum upcoming. At the same time, Bridge stablecoins are always backed by a 1:1 equivalent value in US dollars. The underlying assets include short-term U.S. Treasury bonds, overnight U.S. Treasury repurchase agreements, money market funds, and cash. This portfolio is held in independent accounts to protect the rights of token holders and is custodied by BlackRock, Fidelity, and Apex Partners.
In terms of service coverage, currently, Stripe's stablecoin financial accounts are open for access to business users in 101 countries or regions, mainly concentrated in Latin America, Africa, Asian countries primarily in Central/South Asia and Southeast Asia, the Middle East (such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar), Oceania, and European countries that are mainly small economies outside the EU or offshore financial centers. These regions consist primarily of developing countries, emerging markets, and small economies, typically characterized by high dollarization demand, strong cross-border payment needs, relaxed regulatory environments, insufficient traditional financial infrastructure, or high inflation. Stripe's stablecoin accounts can provide low-cost and high-efficiency payment and fund management solutions for these areas.
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 yet been included in the support list, possibly due to strict regulatory requirements, mature financial markets, or geopolitical factors.
Stripe's Cryptocurrency Layout: From Payments to Ecosystem Building
Stripe's layout in the cryptocurrency field has not been achieved overnight but has undergone 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 transaction confirmation times, high fees, excessive volatility of Bitcoin, and declining customer willingness to accept Bitcoin, coupled with Stripe's belief 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 terminating Bitcoin support, Stripe remains optimistic about cryptocurrencies, stating that it will focus on the development of emerging technologies and faster payment methods such as the Lightning Network, Stellar (in which Stripe was a seed investor), and Ethereum.
2019-2021: Cautious Exploration
In 2019, Stripe briefly participated in Facebook's Libra (later renamed Diem) project, but withdrew due to regulatory pressure, reflecting its cautious attitude towards the cryptocurrency field.
In 2021, Stripe formed a new cryptocurrency team aimed at developing Stripe's cryptocurrency strategy and promoting the integration of payments with Web3.
In November 2021, Paradigm co-founder and managing partner Matt Huang joined the Stripe board. Stripe co-founder and CEO Patrick Collison stated at that time: 'Few people understand cryptocurrencies better than Matt, especially their potential for global internet companies.'
2022: A Comprehensive Return to the Cryptocurrency Market
In March 2022, Stripe launched a series of products aimed at providing customers with tools and APIs to make it easier to buy and store cryptocurrency tokens, convert them to cash, trade NFTs, and handle KYC compliance workflows. Stripe's support page indicated that the company's products would support users in 180 countries/regions to purchase over 135 cryptocurrencies using fiat currency.
In April 2022, Stripe added support for cryptocurrencies in its programmatic (API-based) payment platform Connect, with Twitter becoming the first platform to allow users to pay with cryptocurrency using this platform.
2024-2025: Accelerating the Stablecoin Strategy
Stripe's ambitions in cryptocurrency significantly accelerated in 2024, focusing on stablecoins and consolidating its position in the Web3 payment field through acquisitions and product innovations.
In April 2024, Stripe allowed customers to accept cryptocurrency payments, initially supporting only 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. Stripe's Pay with Crypto product is supported by Paxos's stablecoin payment infrastructure, enabling merchants to more easily accept stablecoin payments.
In October 2024, Stripe acquired the stablecoin payment platform Bridge for $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 Visa cards associated with stablecoins across multiple countries/regions via a single API integration. Businesses and individuals can use their stablecoin balances for everyday shopping wherever Visa is accepted. When cardholders shop, Bridge deducts funds from their stablecoin balance and converts it to fiat currency, allowing merchants to receive payments in local currency like other transactions.
On May 7, 2025, at Stripe Sessions 2025, Stripe launched stablecoin financial accounts. Stripe also announced an expanded partnership with integrated financial operations platform Ramp to launch corporate cards based on stablecoins and integrated expense management software, providing companies with faster settlement speeds, lower costs, built-in currency fluctuation protection, and seamless card issuance. Specifically, businesses can fund Ramp wallets using local currency, which can then be converted to stablecoins, or deposited directly in stablecoins. Cardholders only need to pay using local fiat currency, and merchants will receive fiat currency. Funds are held at par with the dollar, avoiding depreciation of the local currency.
Future Outlook
From early attempts with Bitcoin to today's comprehensive layout centered around stablecoin financial accounts, Stripe's development journey in the cryptocurrency field has accelerated the integration of traditional finance and the cryptocurrency economy, promoting the mainstreaming of stablecoins.
By acquiring Bridge for $1.1 billion and launching stablecoin financial accounts covering 101 countries, Stripe not only effectively addresses many pain points of cross-border payments but also provides an important dollarization tool for emerging markets. Its strategy focuses on the low-cost and high-efficiency characteristics of stablecoins, combined with Bridge's technological advantages and Stripe's global payment network, establishing a solid leadership position in the cryptocurrency payment field.
As global financial regulators gradually improve the regulatory framework for stablecoins, and traditional financial giants like Visa adopt a more open attitude towards stablecoins, stablecoins are moving from the margins to the mainstream. The stablecoin financial accounts launched by Stripe provide businesses with low-friction, high-efficiency global payment solutions, promoting the global financial system towards a more efficient, convenient, and inclusive direction.
