Will Every Company Have Its Own Stablecoin? Yes, Says Stripe's Bridge
🎯 Summary
Podcast Summary: Will Every Company Have Its Own Stablecoin? Yes, Says Stripe’s Bridge
Duration Note: Despite the listed 0-minute duration, this appears to be a full-length interview with substantial content.
Focus Area
This episode centers on stablecoin infrastructure and the future of corporate digital currencies, specifically discussing Bridge’s new “Open Issuance” platform that enables any business to create their own stablecoin. The conversation explores blockchain payments infrastructure, DeFi economics, and the evolution from centralized to distributed stablecoin issuance.
Key Technical Insights
• Interoperability Solution: Bridge is building a network that enables seamless 1:1 conversion between different company stablecoins without user awareness, abstracting away gas fees and bridge costs • Reserve Management Infrastructure: The platform uses BlackRock for treasury management and audited smart contracts to ensure tokenized dollars never exceed actual dollar reserves • Multi-Chain Architecture: Integration with Stripe’s broader crypto stack including Privy (wallet layer), Bridge (banking layer), and the upcoming Tempo blockchain designed specifically for payment-scale applications
Market/Investment Angle
• Economic Disruption of Duopoly: Current stablecoin market dominated by two issuers (85% market share) creates economic misalignment - companies using stablecoins can’t capture treasury yields or control burn fees, making some use cases economically unviable • Massive Market Opportunity: Prediction that stablecoins will reach “many trillions of dollars” with systemic risk concerns driving demand for diversification beyond current two-issuer model • Revenue Model Shift: Companies can capture treasury yields from their own stablecoins rather than outsourcing to Circle/Tether, creating better unit economics for neo-banks and fintech platforms
Notable Companies/People
• Zach Abrams: Co-founder/CEO of Bridge, formerly at Coinbase • Bridge/Stripe: Recently acquired in largest crypto acquisition (since surpassed), now launching Open Issuance platform • Current Customers: Remitly, Ramp, MetaMask, Phantom, Native Markets (USDH) • Infrastructure Partners: BlackRock (treasury management), Shopify (crypto payments integration) • Tempo: Independent blockchain being incubated by Stripe, designed for payment-scale applications
Regulatory/Policy Discussion
The conversation highlights how recent regulatory clarity, particularly around stablecoin legislation, has dramatically accelerated enterprise adoption. The passage of stablecoin regulatory frameworks has shifted Bridge’s customer base from small international developers to large US fintechs, banks, and treasury teams of major e-commerce companies.
Future Implications
The discussion suggests a fundamental shift toward stablecoin infrastructure becoming invisible to end users while enabling businesses to control their monetary rails. Key predictions include stablecoin settlement across card networks, instant settlement capabilities, and the emergence of programmable money that can be customized for specific platform needs. The conversation points toward a world where every major financial platform operates its own stablecoin while maintaining seamless interoperability.
Target Audience
This episode is most valuable for crypto/fintech professionals, institutional investors, and enterprise decision-makers considering stablecoin integration. The technical depth and business strategy focus make it particularly relevant for those building financial infrastructure or evaluating the competitive landscape of digital payments.
Comprehensive Analysis
This podcast episode presents a compelling vision for the future of corporate stablecoins, challenging the current duopoly model dominated by Circle and Tether. Zach Abrams articulates a clear thesis: the existing stablecoin infrastructure creates economic misalignments that prevent optimal use cases from emerging.
The Core Problem: Current stablecoin issuers operate on an Assets Under Management (AUM) model, earning revenue from treasury yields. This creates friction for use cases like cross-border payments (which require burning stablecoins) and prevents companies from offering competitive yield-bearing products to their customers. Bridge’s solution addresses this by enabling companies to issue their own stablecoins while maintaining full economic control.
Technical Innovation: The most intriguing aspect is Bridge’s planned interoperability network, which promises seamless conversion between different company stablecoins without user awareness. This could solve the fragmentation problem that typically emerges in multi-token ecosystems. The technical challenge of maintaining 1:1 conversions while abstracting gas fees represents a significant infrastructure investment.
Market Dynamics: The conversation reveals how regulatory clarity has accelerated enterprise adoption, with Bridge’s customer base shifting from small international developers to major US financial institutions. This suggests the stablecoin market is entering a new maturity phase where regulatory compliance enables mainstream adoption.
Strategic Positioning: Stripe’s broader crypto strategy becomes clearer through this lens - Privy provides wallet infrastructure, Bridge handles the banking layer, Stripe offers application-level integration, and Tempo will provide payment-optimized blockchain infrastructure. This vertical integration could provide significant competitive advantages.
Industry Implications: If successful, this model could fundamentally reshape how businesses think about treasury management and customer relationships. The ability to offer yield-bearing, programmable money while maintaining full control over monetary policy represents a significant evolution from traditional banking relationships.
The conversation suggests we’re moving toward a world where stablecoins become invisible infrastructure - users interact with “digital dollars” without knowing or caring about the
🏢 Companies Mentioned
💬 Key Insights
"I think stablecoins and AI make enormous sense together... stablecoins can be held by non-humans. Non-humans can't hold fiat because you need to be KYC'd and open a bank account."
"Bank of America sends Bank of America coin to JP Morgan, and JP Morgan's not going to hold Bank of America coin because then JP Morgan's deposits are held at Bank of America. They want to send the stablecoin and then net settle money at the end of the day so that all deposits are with the appropriate institution."
"Stablecoins are the first global financial building block. Before stablecoins, if you were building a financial product, you built on US banking to serve the US, then Mexico to serve Mexico, and so on. With stablecoins, anyone can serve hundreds of different countries simultaneously."
"Over the next year to three years, we're going to start to see a significant shift. Historically, stablecoins have been left trading and then focused on cross-border payments. We're going to see 10, 15, or 20 percent of all global money movement shift to these tokenized rails."
"I expect progress to be steady and then dramatic. A good example is stablecoin settlement across the card networks. Right now, stablecoin settlement is less efficient than fiat settlement because banks are paying in fiat, and then Visa has to create the stablecoin and pay it out. If banks start to settle with stablecoins and Visa also pays out in stablecoins, then it's much more efficient."
"The amazing thing happening now is that as we shift down this adoption curve, we're starting to see banks lean in, networks lean in, and cross-border payments companies lean in. All these folks tying together our global money movement infrastructure are beginning to crank the flywheel."