Why Stripe is Creating a New Dollar: The Future of Financial Infrastructure Envisioned by the Collison Brothers
[Series Theme]
The Future Power Map of Stablecoins: Which Currency Will Dominate Which Financial Sphere?
When Open USD was announced, Circle's stock price plummeted. What the market was wary of was perhaps not the concept itself, but the fact that Stripe was behind it.
In 2008, Irish brothers Patrick and John Collison sold a company they co-founded that developed management software for eBay sellers for approximately $5 million. They wereonly 19 and 17 years old at the time.
And it was through that business that they keenly feltthe complexity of online payments. This experience led to the idea of 'Can't we make payments easier?' and became the originof Stripe's founding.
In the past, even if you built a site that could sell products to the world, you couldn't easily receive payment. On the internet, products and information move instantly across borders. Yet, money was fragmented by complex procedures and country-specific financial systems.
Therefore, for companies to implement online payments, they had to sign contracts with banks and card companies, undergo complex screening, and integrate payment systems into their own services.
Noticing this problem, the Collison brothersfounded Stripe in the United States in 2010.Their goal was to create a mechanism that would allow companies and developers to easily integrate payment functions into online services.
What was revolutionary about Stripe was that it provided complex financial functions like payments as an API that was easy for developers to handle. An API is a connection point for calling the functions of one service from another software.
By using Stripe and simply integrating the necessary code into their own services, companies were able to easily accept card payments without worrying about complex processing.
<The 'Point of Contact Connecting Companies and Finance' that Stripe Secured>
Stripe didn't just take on payments.
・Payments: Accepting payments such as credit cards and bank transfers
・Billing: Recurring billing and subscription management
・Connect: Deposits, revenue distribution, and remittances for marketplaces
・Issuing: Issuing Visa/Mastercard branded cards
・Treasury: BaaS that integrates bank account functions into apps
・Capital: Loans and funding for merchants
In this way, they have expanded their financial service domains one by one.
Once a company implements Stripe, it can use various financial functions. This also becomesan extremely strong position for popularizing stablecoins. If Stripe integrates stablecoins into each service, companies will no longer need to be conscious of blockchain mechanismsbecause of that.
Companies only need to use functions like 'receiving payments from customers' and 'sending money to overseas business partners' on Stripe. Stripe optimally selects which financial infrastructure to use—banks, card networks, or stablecoins—behind the scenesfor them.
<What was Gained Through the Bridge Acquisition>
Even so, Stripe alone lacked the functions to fully integrate stablecoins into its payment infrastructure. This is because the technology to process card payments and bank transfers is different from the technology to issue, move, and exchange stablecoins on a blockchain.
Therefore, inFebruary 2025, they acquired Bridge, which provides infrastructure for fund transfers using stablecoins.The goal of this acquisition was to incorporate stablecoins as a new fund transfer route into Stripe's financial infrastructure.
What is important for companies is 'whether funds arrive safely, quickly, and at low cost.' Behind the scenes, they use banks, card networks, and blockchains depending on the situation.
Stripe and Bridge are aiming for a world where companies can use such mechanisms without being aware of them.
Furthermore,in February 2026, Bridge received conditional approval from the OCC for the establishment of 'Bridge National Trust Bank.' They are also advancing the creation of a system to provide stablecoin issuance, reserve management, and custody under federal supervision.
<Starting to Provide Both Wallets and Roads Itself>
With Bridge, Stripe acquired the technology to move stablecoins. However, to utilize digital assets, one also needs a wallet to hold those assets.
Therefore, in June 2025, they announced the acquisition of Privy. Using Privy's technology, companies can embed wallets into their own services, providing users with the ability to hold and move crypto assets and stablecoins.
Furthermore, in September of the same year, Stripe, along with investment firm Paradigm, announced "Tempo," a blockchain specialized for payments. Tempo is designed with a focus on features necessary for corporate payments, such as sub-second settlement, low-cost high-volume transactions, privacy protection, and connectivity with accounting and regulatory compliance systems.
Stripe is not just building the gateway for payments, but has been assembling these one by one:
・Bridge: The foundation connecting fiat currency and stablecoins
・Privy: A wallet to store stablecoins
・Tempo: A road to move stablecoins at high speed and low cost
They have been assembling these one by one. And,they are attempting to incorporate stablecoins as a "currency" for the next generation of payment infrastructure.
Recently, it was reported that they, along with investment firm Advent International, made a acquisition proposal totaling over $53 billion for PayPal, which has approximately 440 million active accounts. If realized, they would gain not only payment infrastructure but also a massive user base where funds actually circulate.
If the acquisition is realized, another point of attention isthe handling of "PYUSD," the PayPal-branded stablecoin issued by "Paxos," which is a competitor to Open Standard.
The outstanding balance of PYUSD is still small compared to USDT or USDC. However, the fact that it is connected to PayPal's massive user base cannot be ignored, andif integration with Open USD proceeds, the power map of stablecoins itself could be significantly redrawn.
What the Collison brothers are looking at is the entire mechanism for companies to receive, manage, send, and spend money on the internet.
The CEO of Bridge also serves as the CEO of Open Standard. Therefore, Open USD is seen as a project led by the Stripe group.Placed within this long-term strategy, Open USD is not a suddenly appearing new business.
Stripe's mission is to "increase the GDP of the internet."
Stripe now provides services to companies in about 50 countries and supports over 135 currencies and payment methods. In 2025, companies using Stripe processed $1.9 trillion in payments. If the acquisition of PayPal succeeds, it is said that the total would reach $3.7 trillion on a simple combined basis, creating one of the world's largest online payment infrastructures.
<Even So, Stripe is Not All-Powerful>
It may seem like Stripe is dominating all financial services. However, as they are not a bank, they need to collaborate with banks and regulated financial institutions in many situations.
Stripe is strong at connecting multiple companies and banks. On the other hand, SoFi holds a banking license itself and provides deposits, investments, cards, loans, and crypto assets directly to customers.
It is not a simple matter of which is superior.
Stripe has the power to expand to companies around the world.
SoFi has the power to deeply enter the financial life of an individual customer.
This difference will divide the future financial sphere.
<What Stripe is Trying to Create>
Over more than 15 years, Stripe has built the gateway for companies to receive, distribute, manage, send, and spend money. And they are trying to create the very world where stablecoins are used. If what determines the winner of stablecoins is which financial infrastructure they are embedded into,Stripe will be a company that cannot be ignored.
The true strength of Open USD lies in its ability to enter the paths where money moves for companies around the world from the very beginning.
At this moment, the most formidable rival for SoFiUSD is Open USD.
There is another move that cannot be overlooked when considering the financial infrastructure Stripe is attempting to build: the $53 billion acquisition proposal for PayPal.In the next installment, as a spin-off of this series, I will delve deeper into why Stripe wants PayPal.
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