In brief
- Bridge’s legal overview assigns your users to one of three contracting entities by residence: Bridge Building Inc in the US, Bridge Building S.A. in the EEA and Bridge Building Limited elsewhere.
- Only the Luxembourg entity’s licences are register-verified (MiCA CASP and e-money institution, both 29 June 2026); the OCC trust-bank approval of February 2026 is conditional and company-reported.
- Bridge’s cards are issued by Lead Bank with Bridge Ventures LLC as programme manager, a different entity from the money transmitter, and the site footer and fee-page footer name entities that differ from the legal overview.
Reader question: if my fintech uses Bridge to move, hold or issue stablecoins, or to run a card programme, which Bridge entity contracts with my users in each region, under which licence, and who plays which role in the card?
Bridge sells stablecoin APIs to developers: orchestration, wallets, issuance and cards. Its API moves USDC, USDT and a customer’s own stablecoin across “10+ blockchains”. Stripe completed its acquisition of Bridge on 4 February 2025.
What is verified today
Register checks on 30 September 2026: ESMA and the CSSF list Bridge Building S.A. as a crypto-asset service provider (N00000012, 29 host states) and e-money institution (W00000024), both authorised 29 June 2026. FinCEN’s list (29 September export) has four Bridge entities; the OCC’s active trust-bank list (31 August) and pending table have none.
Who contracts with your users, by region
You sign the Developer Agreement, which does not name the Bridge entity signing it; your users get services from the affiliates on the legal overview page.
| Entity | Role | Licence claimed | Register evidence (30 Sep 2026) | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bridge Building Inc (US) | US user terms (updated 5 May 2026); issuer of Bridge stablecoins | 34 state licence rows for 33 jurisdictions, one of them virtual-currency | FinCEN MSB registration listed (declared activity includes money transmission), received 2 Sep 2026; does not verify state licences, which were not checked (NMLS not used) | Company-reported |
| Bridge Building S.A. (Luxembourg, B298785) | EEA user terms (updated 1 Jul 2026) | MiCA CASP; e-money institution | ESMA and CSSF: both listed | Verified, authorised 29 Jun 2026 |
| Bridge Building Sp. z o.o. (Poland) | Separately published EEA terms; named in fee-page footer | Footer cites RDWW-794; nature and status not verified | Not checked | Conflicting evidence |
| Bridge Building Limited | Terms outside the US and EEA | None stated; jurisdiction not stated | Not checked | Not publicly disclosed |
| Bridge Ventures LLC (Delaware) | Card programme manager; footer says it serves non-EEA users | None stated | FinCEN: listed, received 24 Feb 2025 | Footer conflicts with legal overview |
| Proposed national trust bank | Custody, stablecoin issuance, reserve management | OCC conditional approval, 17 Feb 2026 | OCC decision not located; no match on active list (31 Aug) or pending table | Conditional (company-reported); final authority not confirmed |
Two more FinCEN registrants, Bridge Building Arx LLC and Bridge Ventures Inc, are not explained on bridge.xyz.
Card and stablecoin roles
| Role | Who | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Card issuer | Lead Bank, a Missouri state-chartered bank | Remitly and Phantom cardholder agreements |
| Programme manager | Bridge Ventures LLC | Same agreements |
| Platform provider | The fintech’s brand, e.g. Phantom Technologies, Inc. | Phantom agreement |
| Network and issuing stack | Visa; Stripe Issuing since 29 Apr 2026 | Bridge blog |
| Stablecoin-to-fiat conversion, processing, settlement | Not publicly disclosed; card assets and chains not stated | Both agreements, cards pages |
| Custody of US users’ crypto | Bridge Building Inc, as wallet custodian (contractual disclosure) | US user terms |
| Insurance (contractual disclosures) | Phantom card: fiat on the card not FDIC-eligible. US terms: funds BBI or its partners hold while processing orders not FDIC- or SIPC-protected. Other programmes not checked | Phantom agreement, US terms |
| Stablecoin issuer | Bridge Building Inc; coins “regulated as a form of stored value”, redeemable 1:1 with BBI or affiliates, subject to user-terms conditions | Stablecoin terms |
Holders get no property interest in the segregated reserve, and BBI keeps returns above the minimum. In a May 2025 post Bridge described USDB, its own coin, as backed by cash and money market funds at BlackRock; reserve custodians, attestation provider and current composition are not yet verified. Bridge announced Phantom’s CASH on Open Issuance, its white-label platform, and said it would stop issuing new USDH on 19 May 2026 except for migration liquidity; neither step was independently checked.
Eligibility, pricing and dependencies
US users need an account with a partner such as your fintech and must be 18 or over. Which countries or business types may sign the Developer Agreement or run a card programme is not publicly disclosed. The Phantom card is for personal use only. Bridge claims card availability in 30 countries (100+ targeted by end-2026); Visa acceptance shows where cards spend, not where programmes launch. The country list and any non-US issuer are not publicly disclosed. Developers keep all interchange. Developer fees sit in an unpublished order form; end users pay an FX spread of up to 1% plus gas at cost. Bridge says it uses Banking Circle for EUR and GBP and plans USD transfers over SWIFT through it; the USD leg was not verified. Documented programme references are Bridge-hosted card agreements for Phantom and Remitly and the CASH announcement; current production use was not yet verified. Bridge’s orchestration page gives no usable volume measure: its scale statement has no unit, period or method.
Alternatives
| Point | Bridge | zerohash | Paxos | Anchorage Digital |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OCC trust charter | Conditional (company-reported); on neither OCC list | zerohash national trust bank: pending, received 19 Aug 2026 | Paxos Trust Company, N.A.: active, charter 25379 | Anchorage Digital Bank N.A.: active, charter 25243 |
| Overlapping use case | Stablecoin issuance, orchestration, cards | Embedded stablecoin services in the EEA | Stablecoin issuance under OCC approval | Stablecoin issuance by its bank |
| MiCA CASP on ESMA | Bridge Building S.A. (CSSF) | zerohash europe B.V. (AFM) | No name match (30 Sep CSV); affiliates not checked | No name match (30 Sep CSV); affiliates not checked |
Paxos and Anchorage hold operating federal charters; Bridge’s is conditional, zerohash’s an application. In the EEA, Bridge and zerohash both have a register-listed MiCA entity (background: how ESMA plans to supervise MiCA firms). None of the three is shown here as a card-programme alternative.
Limitations and unknowns
- US state licences: not yet verified (NMLS not used, state registers not checked).
- OCC conditional approval: no OCC record located on occ.gov, not yet verified (context: why Washington regulates stablecoins).
- Conflicting evidence: footer vs legal overview; Polish vs Luxembourg EEA terms; CASP services (Bridge lists four, ESMA five); Luxembourg address (26 Boulevard Royal in terms and ESMA, 33 Boulevard Prince Henri at the CSSF).
- A CSSF “EMONEY_TOKEN” entry dated 20 August 2026 names no token: not yet verified.
- End-user restrictions in the EEA and rest-of-world terms, and mint and redemption eligibility and conditions under the stablecoin and US terms, were not reviewed: not yet verified.
- Reserve custodians and attestations for Open Issuance coins: not yet verified; Bridge points to USDH.com for USDH attestations, which we did not open.
Key facts (as of 30 September 2026)
- Parent: Stripe; CEO Zach Abrams
Sources
- CSSF: entity search; ESMA: interim MiCA CASP register
- OCC: active trust banks and pending digital-asset applications
- FinCEN: MSB Registrant Search
- Bridge: legal overview, US licences, stablecoin terms, Phantom cardholder agreement, OCC approval post
- Stripe: Stripe completes Bridge acquisition
Last updated: 30 September 2026. Next recheck triggered by: final OCC approval or opening of Bridge’s trust bank; a change to the legal overview or the US, EEA or rest-of-world terms; retirement of the Polish terms; a CSSF or ESMA register change for Bridge Building S.A.; a card issuer other than Lead Bank or a published country list.
