Stripe’s Open Issuance Could Let Firms Launch Custom Stablecoins and Manage Reserves, With USDC Cited in Market Context

• Launch stablecoins in days with customizable reserves

• Mint, burn and integrate rewards with simple developer tooling and APIs.

• Backed by Bridge acquisition and supported by treasury managers BlackRock, Fidelity, and Superstate; market context: $300B today, $2T forecast by 2028 (U.S. Treasury).

Stripe Open Issuance lets businesses launch stablecoins quickly with reserve controls and major treasury partners — explore steps to deploy in days. Read more.

What is Stripe Open Issuance and how does it work?

Stripe Open Issuance is a developer-focused service that lets businesses create, mint, and manage branded stablecoins with simple code and configurable reserve policies. It combines token issuance APIs, reserve management, and partnerships for treasury custody to reduce integration, liquidity, and compliance friction.

How will businesses customize reserves and compliance?

Stripe allows issuers to set a reserve ratio between cash and treasuries and to choose preferred custody and treasury managers. Stripe announced partnerships with asset managers BlackRock, Fidelity Investments, and blockchain-based Superstate to hold treasuries, and the solution will be backed by Bridge, an infrastructure firm Stripe acquired in October 2024 for $1.1 billion. These arrangements aim to simplify reserve audits and regulatory reporting.

Stripe’s new “Open Issuance” tool will enable companies to easily build and launch their own stablecoins, as well as manage the token’s reserves.

Global payments firm Stripe is deepening its crypto offerings with a tool it says will allow any business to launch and manage their own stablecoin “with just a few lines of code.”

The tool, called “Open Issuance,” will allow businesses to “mint and burn coins freely, and customize their reserves to manage the ratio between cash and treasuries and choose their preferred partners,” Stripe said on Tuesday.

The service, one of more than 40 offerings Stripe announced this week, will be backed by Bridge — a stablecoin infrastructure company Stripe acquired for $1.1 billion in October 2024 — while treasuries will be managed by asset management giants BlackRock, Fidelity Investments and blockchain-based asset manager Superstate.

Financial companies have been increasingly interested in stablecoins under the crypto-friendly Trump administration, which signed the stablecoin-regulating GENIUS Act into law in July. The stablecoin market has boomed to $300 billion, with the US Treasury estimating it will rise to $2 trillion by 2028.

Source: Stripe

The Information also reported on Tuesday that Stripe is seeking a federal banking charter to meet US stablecoin requirements, as well as a trust license from the New York State Department of Financial Services.

How fast can Stripe service launch stablecoins?

Stripe said businesses using Open Issuance could launch a stablecoin in a few days, adding that users can create rewards and use earnings from these rewards to incentivize their customers. Launch timelines depend on onboarding, reserve setup, and compliance checks.

“Businesses can build on top of stablecoins that they customize and control, so that the benefits of this important technology flow directly to the people and businesses using them,” Stripe said, emphasizing issuer control and customer-facing use cases.

Stripe argues the approach carries fewer operational risks than building a full in-house stablecoin stack, which often strains teams on reserve management, compliance, and liquidity provisioning.

Why is crypto-as-a-service gaining traction?

Stripe’s stablecoin service follows similar white-label crypto offerings as traditional financial firms and exchanges expand product suites. Major exchange providers are rolling out crypto-as-a-service products to let banks, brokerages, and other enterprises offer crypto functions without building infrastructure from scratch.

These services typically include access to trading, custody, liquidity, and compliance tooling — reducing time-to-market and operational complexity for incumbents entering crypto.

How does Open Issuance fit into agentic e-commerce?

Stripe also announced an Agentic Commerce Protocol developed with OpenAI to let merchants sell through AI agents while retaining brand control. Stablecoins issued via Open Issuance could be used to power payments and incentives for these AI-driven commerce flows.

Circle, Crossmint, Binance, and Coinbase have similarly announced moves to expand rails and crypto-as-a-service capabilities, showing industry momentum toward integrated crypto payments and tokenized commerce.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can a company control its stablecoin reserves with Stripe Open Issuance?

Yes. Issuers can customize reserve composition and set mint/burn rules while relying on Stripe and partner managers for custody and treasuries to simplify audits and reporting.

Will Stripe Open Issuance reduce issuer compliance burden?

Stripe positions Open Issuance to reduce compliance overhead by offering tooling, partner-managed treasuries, and reporting, but issuers remain responsible for regulatory obligations and onboarding.

Key Takeaways

• Speed to market: Open Issuance aims to let businesses launch stablecoins in days with developer-focused APIs.
• Reserve control: Issuers can set cash/treasury ratios and choose treasury managers to support audits and liquidity.
• Industry context: The stablecoin market is large and growing ($300B today; U.S. Treasury projects up to $2T by 2028), and multiple firms now offer crypto-as-a-service.

Conclusion

Stripe Open Issuance positions companies to deploy branded stablecoins quickly while outsourcing reserve custody and reporting to established managers. For businesses exploring tokenized rewards, payments, or agentic commerce, Open Issuance offers a pragmatic path to production — monitor regulatory guidance and complete onboarding to go live.