Stripe doesn’t need bank
Hey, it’s Marc!
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
Marc Baumann & Sangam Bharti· Feb 25, 2026· 6 min