A retailer in Austin ships B2B equipment to buyers in Southeast Asia. In May 2025, one of those buyers selected "Crypto" at checkout, sent USDC from a Coinbase Wallet, and the Austin merchant received USD in their Stripe balance the following morning — on their normal payout schedule, with no wallet to manage, no gas fee to track, and no blockchain engineer on their payroll. That transaction ran through Stripe's stablecoin payment rails, built on top of Bridge's orchestration layer.

This is part 2 of the Crypto Payment Rails 2026 series. Part 1 covered the broader payments stack. Here the focus is the Stripe + Bridge product in operational detail: how to enable it, what each step in the checkout flow actually does, and why the OCC conditional charter approval matters for merchants building on top of it.

Bridge: Orchestration Without the Blockchain

Bridge's core product is stablecoin orchestration — the ability to accept any supported stablecoin via API and route it to another stablecoin or to local fiat, without requiring either the merchant or the end customer to manage wallets, private keys, or gas fees directly. Before Stripe acquired it, Bridge's flagship customers included Coinbase and SpaceX, who used the platform to manage dollar-denominated flows across jurisdictions where traditional banking rails were slow or structurally unavailable.

Stripe announced the $1.1 billion acquisition in October 2024. The deal closed on February 4, 2025 — the largest acquisition in Stripe's history and its most direct bet on stablecoin infrastructure. Post-acquisition, Bridge kept its developer APIs and brand, operating as a Stripe subsidiary with its orchestration layer integrated into Stripe's existing payment surface rather than rebuilt from scratch.

The design principle is "invisibility": Bridge handles all of the stablecoin mechanics — conversion, routing, settlement — so that neither the merchant's engineering team nor the end customer needs to understand which blockchain the funds moved through or how gas fees work.

If you want a foundation on what a stablecoin actually is — reserves, redemption, and the mechanics that distinguish USDC from an algorithmic token — that is worth reading before going further.

How Stripe Stablecoin Payments Works

Stripe's stablecoin product wraps Bridge's orchestration into a checkout option that most merchants can activate in under ten minutes.

Enabling it is a single dashboard action: Stripe Dashboard → Payment Methods → toggle Stablecoin Payments on. Alternatively, add 'crypto' to the payment_method_types array in your API configuration. There is no blockchain SDK to install, no wallet to manage, and no additional KYC process beyond your existing Stripe verification.

At checkout, the customer sees a "Crypto" option alongside cards and bank transfers. Selecting it redirects them to crypto.stripe.com, where they connect a compatible wallet — MetaMask, Coinbase Wallet, or any WalletConnect-compatible wallet — review the USDC amount with a real-time USD equivalent, and sign the transaction.

Supported stablecoins and networks as of mid-2026:

USDC on Ethereum, Solana, Polygon, and Base
USDP on Ethereum and Solana (US-only)
USDG on Ethereum (US-only)

Customers can pay from anywhere globally, except sanctioned jurisdictions. General availability is currently for US merchants; private preview extends to EU countries (Austria, Belgium, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, and 25+ others), Switzerland, Mexico, and Hong Kong. Geographic expansion is ongoing.

Settlement lands in the merchant's local currency — USD, EUR, or equivalent — on their existing Stripe payout schedule. The stablecoin leg is entirely abstracted: from the merchant's accounting and reporting perspective, this looks identical to a bank transfer credit.

The Merchant Walkthrough, Step by Step

Here is the precise operational flow for a US merchant accepting USDC on Base:

Enable: Stripe Dashboard → Payment Methods → Stablecoin Payments on. Or add 'crypto' to payment_method_types in your API config.
Customer selects Crypto at checkout. Stripe redirects them to crypto.stripe.com.
Wallet connect: the customer connects their wallet, reviews the USDC amount and its live USD equivalent, and signs the transaction.
Network confirmation: Stripe monitors the blockchain transaction for confirmation on the relevant network (Ethereum, Solana, Polygon, or Base).
Bridge orchestration: once confirmed, USDC is routed through Bridge's layer and converted to the merchant's settlement currency.
Payout: the merchant receives funds in their Stripe balance on their standard payout schedule. No crypto balance is held on the merchant side, no exchange interaction occurs, and no gas fee responsibility falls on the merchant.
Refunds reverse the flow — Stripe returns stablecoins to the customer's originating wallet address. Unlike card refunds where the destination is a card number, a stablecoin refund requires a wallet address. Surface this clearly in your refund copy and customer service flows.

Adding 'crypto' to your payment_method_types array alongside 'card' and 'us_bank_account' is the complete integration step for most merchants. No custom blockchain code required.

Fees and Settlement: The Commercial Case

The merchant fee is a flat 1.5% — meaningfully below standard card-processing rates of 2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction.

On a $1,000 B2B transaction:

Card processing: approximately $29.30
Stablecoin via Stripe: $15.00

The fee advantage grows with transaction value. For merchants with large average order values, recurring B2B transactions, or cross-border volume where currency conversion fees compound on top of card rates, the case for stablecoin as a payment option is straightforward. The network gas fee is paid by the customer — the merchant sees only the flat 1.5%.

Cross-border transactions benefit most. A US merchant receiving payment from a European buyer traditionally absorbs card network currency conversion fees plus the Stripe percentage. With stablecoin payments, the buyer sends USDC, Bridge converts it, and the merchant receives USD — with a single 1.5% fee covering the entire flow.

The 1.5% fee applies to the merchant. Stripe's legal terms for stablecoin payments govern which transaction types qualify; check the current fee schedule for your merchant country before projecting savings at scale.

USDB, Open Issuance, and the Treasury Path

Merchants who prefer to hold stablecoin balances rather than convert immediately to fiat have access to a second product layer: Stablecoin Financial Accounts.

A Stablecoin Financial Account is a business account where the underlying balance is held as a stablecoin (USDC or USDB) rather than bank deposits. Stablecoin Financial Accounts launched on May 7, 2025 — the same day Bridge introduced USDB, its own branded dollar stablecoin — and are available to businesses in 101 countries. They support receiving funds via ACH, SEPA, wire, or stablecoin transfer, and paying out globally, without opening a local bank account in each jurisdiction.

USDB is backed 1:1 by cash and short-duration money market funds managed at BlackRock. Bridge passes most of the reserve yield back to developers as a usage rebate rather than retaining it as margin. For treasury teams, this means a dollar-denominated balance that earns yield while remaining liquid and globally payable.

If you use Zelcore as your self-custody wallet and need to move funds to a supported chain before initiating a payment, on-ramps and stablecoin swaps inside Zelcore can bridge that gap without leaving your wallet.

Open Issuance, launched September 26, 2025, extends the platform further: any business can issue its own branded stablecoin via Bridge's infrastructure without acquiring money transmitter licenses or building reserve management from scratch. Early partners include Phantom (CASH), Hyperliquid (USDH via Native Markets), MetaMask, Sui (USDsui), and MoneyGram (MGUSD, launched June 2026). All Open Issuance tokens support one-for-one swaps with each other through Bridge's ecosystem, giving each issuer built-in liquidity at launch. Reserve management draws on BlackRock, Fidelity, and Superstate, with issuers earning approximately 3–4% APY.

For most merchants, USDB and Stablecoin Financial Accounts are the relevant tier. Open Issuance serves fintechs, neobanks, and enterprises building their own dollar-denominated instruments on top of the same infrastructure Stripe runs.

The OCC Charter: Why Regulatory Track Record Matters

On February 17, 2026, the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) granted Bridge conditional approval to organize Bridge National Trust Bank — a federally chartered national trust bank. An OCC national trust bank charter is a federal banking license that enables an institution to provide trust services — custody, fiduciary, and reserve management — nationwide under a single charter, rather than navigating a patchwork of state-by-state money transmitter licenses.

The charter's authorized scope covers stablecoin issuance, digital asset custody, and stablecoin reserve management. Bridge frames the approval as "GENIUS-ready": its reserve, compliance, and governance frameworks were designed to satisfy the requirements of the GENIUS Act (the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins Act, the US federal framework for stablecoin issuers). Bridge joins a cohort receiving similar OCC conditional approvals in early 2026 — alongside Circle, Ripple, Paxos, Fidelity Digital Assets, and BitGo — signaling that a federal stablecoin infrastructure tier is actively forming.

Final approval requires Bridge to satisfy conditions on governance, capital adequacy, risk management, and operational readiness. As a reference point, comparable approvals have taken roughly four months before going final.

For merchants, the practical implication is concrete: stablecoin infrastructure built on Stripe + Bridge today sits on a platform actively acquiring bank-charter-level oversight. That directly reduces counterparty and regulatory risk in a way that distinguishes Bridge from earlier-generation crypto payment processors. For the full picture of the US stablecoin regulatory framework — how OCC, FDIC, and Treasury rules reshape who can issue dollar stablecoins — that article covers the complete landscape. For an issuer-by-issuer breakdown of which stablecoins qualify under the regulated stablecoin tier as defined by the GENIUS Act, that reference is also worth bookmarking.

Key Takeaways

Stripe's acquisition of Bridge (closed February 4, 2025, for $1.1 billion) created a single dashboard toggle that enables stablecoin acceptance without blockchain integration, wallet management, or additional KYC.
The merchant fee is a flat 1.5% — roughly half the cost of standard card processing on high-value transactions. Gas fees are paid by the customer. Settlement is in local fiat on the merchant's normal Stripe payout schedule.
Supported stablecoins include USDC on Ethereum, Solana, Polygon, and Base; USDP and USDG on Ethereum (US-only). Customers can pay from anywhere globally except sanctioned jurisdictions; general availability covers US merchants.
Stablecoin Financial Accounts (available in 101 countries from May 7, 2025) let businesses hold yield-bearing USDC or USDB rather than converting immediately to fiat — effectively a stablecoin business bank account backed by BlackRock-managed money market reserves.
Bridge's OCC conditional approval on February 17, 2026 to organize a federally chartered national trust bank adds regulatory credibility that distinguishes this infrastructure from earlier-generation crypto payment processors.

Stripe and Bridge: Accepting Stablecoins as a Merchant

Bridge: Orchestration Without the Blockchain

How Stripe Stablecoin Payments Works

The Merchant Walkthrough, Step by Step

Fees and Settlement: The Commercial Case

USDB, Open Issuance, and the Treasury Path

The OCC Charter: Why Regulatory Track Record Matters

Key Takeaways

Sources

Further Reading

Visa and Mastercard Stablecoin Settlement: What It Means When You Pay

Lightning for Bitcoin Merchants: Invoices, Channels, and LSPs

MiCA vs the GENIUS Act: What You Can Actually Hold Where

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