Payments company Stripe has taken another major step into digital assets with the launch of Open Issuance, a platform that allows businesses to create and manage their own stablecoins. The new service is offered through Bridge, a crypto infrastructure firm Stripe acquired earlier this year, and is being positioned as a way to shift power away from a handful of dominant issuers such as Tether and Circle . Stripe is taking aim at incumbents Stablecoins have become a crucial part of global finance, with businesses using them for payments, cross-border transfers, and treasury management. But the market is still dominated by a few providers whose liquidity and brand recognition have made their tokens hard to compete with. Stripe argues that this concentration leaves businesses dependent on external issuers, exposed to their fee structures, and excluded from the economics of the assets they rely on. Open Issuance is designed to change that. It gives companies the ability to mint and burn tokens without limits, choose how reserves are structured, and tap into a shared liquidity pool that makes new coins interoperable from day one. Bridge says this approach allows issuers to focus on customers rather than infrastructure while also earning rewards on their holdings. Phantom debuts CASH stablecoin on Open Issuance The first real-world use case of Open Issuance comes from Phantom, a crypto wallet provider with more than 15 million users. Phantom is launching its own stablecoin, called CASH, through Open Issuance, and the token will be used to power money movement features inside the wallet, ranging from payments and peer-to-peer transfers to decentralised finance (DeFi) transactions. Other projects are also adopting the system. Hyperliquid’s USDH and MetaMask’s mUSD are being moved onto the Open Issuance platform, alongside tokens linked to Dakota, Slash, Lava, and Takenos. By pooling liquidity across these assets, Stripe and Bridge hope to solve one of the biggest challenges for any new stablecoin: gaining traction in a market dominated by incumbents. Building with reserves and compliance in mind Stripe has emphasised that issuers will not only be able to choose supported blockchains and smart contract functions but also customise their reserves. Options include balances of cash and US Treasuries managed by partners such as BlackRock, Fidelity Investments, Superstate, and Lead Bank. Stripe is also highlighting compliance, with the platform designed to meet emerging US rules under the GENIUS Act and other stablecoin legislation. This is meant to give businesses confidence that their tokens can scale safely without running afoul of regulators. Stripe’s infrastructure handles security, reserve management, and liquidity while issuers concentrate on product features and user adoption. A bet on the next phase of payments The stablecoin market has grown rapidly, surpassing $290 billion in circulation this year with inflows of nearly $46 billion in the third quarter alone. But while adoption is accelerating, liquidity remains concentrated in a few tokens, and regulators are pushing for stricter oversight. Stripe is betting that businesses will want stablecoins they can control and customise rather than building on top of someone else’s product. Will Gaybrick, Stripe’s president of technology and business, stated that “Stablecoins and AI are driving the next online economy,” and their “goal is to pull frontier technology out of the experimental phase and into the mainstream.” The post Stripe launches Open Issuance, allowing businesses to mint their own stablecoins appeared first on Invezz
