Zach Abrams on Bridge Open Issuance: every bank and fintech can now launch their own stablecoin in a day
Sep 30, 2025 with Zach Abrams
Key Points
- Bridge launches Open Issuance, letting banks and fintechs issue branded stablecoins in one to two days, addressing the economics gap where third-party coins deny issuers roughly 4% in yield.
- The platform automates stablecoin conversion across blockchains and wallets, making the infrastructure invisible to users while enabling faster and cheaper transfers without crypto knowledge.
- Bridge survived FTX's collapse, three banking partner failures, and USDC's depeg in 2023, positioning Stripe's stablecoin conversion layer to dominate as the market fragments from USDC/USDT duopoly.
Summary
Zach Abrams, co-founder of Bridge (acquired by Stripe), announced Open Issuance on September 30th — a platform that lets any bank, fintech, or consumer app launch its own stablecoin in one to two days. The product has been roughly two years in development and represents Bridge's original founding thesis: that institutions would eventually want to issue their own branded, programmable stablecoins rather than rely on third-party assets like USDC or USDT.
Why self-issuance matters
The economics are the core argument. A neobank building on someone else's stablecoin captures none of the underlying yield. Building on its own stablecoin earns roughly 4% — a material difference in unit economics and customer experience. Abrams extends the logic to legacy banks: Bank of America sitting on JPMorgan-issued coins would effectively be subsidizing a competitor's deposit base. The natural endpoint, in his view, is every major bank, community bank, and fintech running its own stablecoin, with money converting seamlessly as it moves between platforms.
Bridge has already built that conversion layer. When a Phantom Cash user sends funds to a MetaMask wallet, the cash automatically converts into MUSD on arrival. The stablecoin infrastructure becomes invisible to the end user — faster and cheaper transfers, but no crypto interface required.
Launch partners and availability
Open Issuance launched with Phantom, MetaMask, Hyperliquid, and Dakota among the announced partners. It is open to all — from issuers with $5 million in outstanding stablecoin value up to those with billions. Operators can customize smart contracts, choose which blockchains to deploy on, and eliminate mint and burn fees.
Survival story
Abrams is candid about how close Bridge came to not existing. The company started building in earnest in October 2022. Its first prospective customer was FTX, which collapsed weeks later. Its banking partners — Silvergate, Signature, and SVB — all failed within months of each other. Bridge moved its first live dollar the same week USDC depegged and SVB collapsed. Abrams and co-founder Sean spent that Friday unsure the company would survive the weekend. It did, and he describes everything since as "all uphill."
The broader stablecoin market is now moving away from the USDC/USDT duopoly that defined its early years. Open Issuance is Bridge's bet that the next phase is fragmented issuance stitched together by conversion infrastructure — and that Stripe's network is positioned to own that layer.