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For over 15 years, Stripe processed payments. It needed banks to hold the money. It needed card networks to move it. It needed partners for everything. That just changed.

Now, Stripe owns a bank. Kind of. On February 17, 2026, the OCC conditionally approved Bridge, Stripe’s $1.1 billion stablecoin acquisition, for a national trust bank charter. [RELEASE]

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What happened

The OCC greenlit a national trust bank charter1 for Bridge, Stripe’s stablecoin acquisition, in February 2026, but conditionally. Bridge National Trust will issue stablecoins, custody digital assets, and manage reserves under direct federal oversight. [RELEASE]

This follows December 2025 approvals for Ripple, Circle, Paxos, BitGo, and Fidelity Digital Assets. WLFI, linked to the Trump family, applied for a national trust bank charter in January 2026 to issue and custody its “USD1” stablecoin. [See full analysis]

What makes Bridge different? Bridge has Stripe’s $1+ trillion in annual payment volume behind it.