Bridge, the stablecoin infrastructure company acquired by payments giant Stripe, applied for a national bank trust charter with the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), co-founder Zach Abrams said on Wednesday.
The move would put the firm under federal regulatory oversight if approved by the regulator. Through the bank, company would provide services including custody, stablecoin issuance, management of stablecoin reserves, Abrams said.
“We’ve long believed stablecoins will be a core, regulated financial building block,” Zach Abrams said in a Tuesday X post. “This regulatory infrastructure will enable 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 seeking federal regulatory oversight similar to traditional finance firms as the stablecoin sector is booming. Stablecoins, cryptocurrencies tied to fiat money like the U.S. dollar, are a nearly $300 billion asset class and becoming increasingly popular for cross-border payments. The growth has been aided by signing the GENIUS Act into law, improving regulatory clarity for the sector in the U.S.
Stripe unveiled earlier this month its Open Issuance service that helps companies to launch their own stablecoin using Bridge’s infrastructure. Crypto wallet Phantom’s CASH, MetaMask’s mUSD and Hyperliquid’s USDH stablecoins all rely on Bridge as issuance partner. Stripe acquired Bridge for $1.1 billion last year, making it an integral part of the firm’s growing ambition in blockchain-powered payments.