Bankless Podcast Summary

Stripe’s Trillion-Dollar Bet: How Stablecoins Eat Global Payments | Zach Abrams, Founder of Bridge

Release Date: September 8, 2025
Host: Ryan Sean Adams
Guest: Zach Abrams (Founder of Bridge, Head of Crypto Payments at Stripe)

Overview

This episode explores the seismic convergence between fintech and crypto as Stripe—one of the world’s most prominent payments companies—bets big on stablecoins and blockchain rails. Ryan Sean Adams interviews Zach Abrams, founder of Bridge (acquired by Stripe), on how traditional finance is transforming through tokenized money. Drawing on Abrams’ rare experience in both fintech and crypto, the conversation covers stablecoin market evolution, Stripe’s role, infrastructure limitations, and radical shifts on the horizon—including the prospect of AI agents as end users.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Zach Abrams’ Journey: From Auto Parts to Stablecoins

• Finance Origins: Zach began his career in private equity, unexpectedly running an auto parts company at age 22. Realizing he wanted to build, not turn around companies, he moved into startups (07:01–08:29).
• First Startup Lessons: Outlines naïveté in founding a fintech startup in 2010, learning the harsh reality of building without technical skills (09:35–10:18).
• Repeated Fintech Focus: Despite multiple exit pivots (including a Square acquisition), Zach gravitated again and again toward fintech, eventually leading to crypto (11:18).

“I just found myself picking fintech every time, without even realizing it.”
— Zach Abrams (11:18)

2. The Intersection of Fintech and Crypto

• Bridging Two Worlds: Fintech veterans were skeptical of crypto, while crypto natives dismissed fintech as obsolete or irrelevant (16:53–17:55).
• Unique Position: Bridge’s edge was deep fintech knowledge paired with belief in the utility of crypto rails.

“You either religiously believed in crypto… or you thought crypto was purely speculative. The overlap was incredibly small, which created our opportunity.”
— Zach Abrams (17:55)

3. Founding Bridge During Crypto’s Darkest Days

• Launch in Turmoil: Bridge was launched in 2022, amidst the Terra Luna and FTX implosions and deep anti-crypto regulatory backlash (18:37–20:04).
• Conviction Amid Adversity: Despite major bank failures and “operation chokepoint,” Bridge’s core belief stayed firm: stablecoins are a fundamentally better payment tool (19:26–23:21).
• Contrast with Traditional Wires: Zach and Ryan share anecdotes of lost wires and the lack of settlement transparency in legacy rails, highlighting stablecoins’ clear advantages (22:15–23:21).

“You send a stablecoin over a blockchain… you can see when it was sent, when it was confirmed, when it was delivered. Basic things you just can’t do in banking.”
— Zach Abrams (23:21)

4. Building Bridge: The Stablecoin Payments Platform

• Bridge’s Function: Acts as a “Layer 2” on top of the fiat banking system, orchestrating the movement between legacy (ACH, wires) and tokenized stablecoins (31:08–34:27).
• API as Core Product: Simple developer APIs abstract away KYC, crypto nuances, and fiat/crypto swaps.
• First Customers: Zulu enabled rapid, cross-border payout flows by converting local currencies into stablecoins, then into US dollars via Bridge—illustrating product-market fit (34:30–37:22).
• Major Scale with Gov’t Aid: U.S. government used Bridge to disburse aid in stablecoin form across Latin America after Silvergate’s collapse (37:37–39:34).

5. Stablecoins v. Legacy Settlement: The Coming Disruption

• The “Dumb Settlement Layer” Theory: As more of finance moves to stablecoin rails (“Layer 2”), the legacy banking system risks being relegated to “dumb settlement” status, facing threats to core business and yields (41:20–47:00).
• Stablecoin Yields Debate: Abrams notes that traditional yield from government bonds is central to banks’ business; crypto is disrupting this—but stablecoin issuers, like Tether and Circle, aren’t always passing those benefits to users without competitive pressure (47:00–49:37).

“If only USDT and USDC are the primary stable coins, Tether is never going to pay yield back… It’ll just aggregate to the new equivalent of a Visa or MasterCard.”
— Zach Abrams (47:17)

6. Stablecoin Market Structure After U.S. “Genius Bill”

• Explosion of Issuers: The new regulatory clarity (“Genius Bill”) opens the market to tech giants (PayPal, Amazon, Walmart), banks, and fintechs (51:14–54:11).
• Many Stablecoins, Few Brands: Expect a few dominant “branded” stablecoins (USDT, USDC) plus thousands of privately or internally managed coins controlled by corporates, all abstracted by APIs/infrastructure (51:14–55:37).
• Composable, Swappable Rails: Despite proliferation, user experience will abstract away differences; clearinghouses will facilitate nightly netting, similar to today’s banking system (57:41–58:34).

7. Stripe and the Crypto Transformation

• Stripe’s Commitment: Stripe hasn’t just dabbled—acquiring Bridge, Privy (wallet infra), and now sponsoring a EVM Layer 1, “Tempo.” (58:34–60:02)
• Transforming Fintech UX: Abrams argues that five years out, every fintech product starts as a wallet, with financial assets—currencies, stocks—natively tokenized on blockchains (60:02–62:36).

“Most financial assets will be tokenized. The foundational building block for every fintech will be a wallet.”
— Zach Abrams (60:16)

8. Why Build Tempo? The Rise of Application-Specific Blockchains

• Payment Scale Limitations: Existing blockchains (even high-speed ones like Solana) struggle with true payment-scale infrastructure—Bridge learned this first-hand due to cost and throughput constraints (65:17–65:51).
• Tempo EVM L1: Solution to support millions of accounts/payments/day, with features such as private transactions, sub-second finality, and neutral governance (70:17–71:45).
• Specialized Blockchains vs. General Purpose: Forecasts a world with a few general-purpose chains (e.g., Base, Solana), several specialized chains for payments/trading, and myriad app-specific chains (73:39–76:07).

9. Migration From COBOL Mainframes to On-Chain Finance

• Gradual Replacement: Over time, fintech front ends will rely less on legacy mainframe back ends and more on blockchain ledgers—with settlements increasingly rare (76:50–79:28).
• Need for Local Stablecoins: Current market is US-dollar centric; true financial transformation requires tokenized local currencies too.

10. Barriers to Mass Adoption

• 1. Regulation & Accounting: Still critical, especially outside the U.S.
• 2. Education & Talent: Most financial teams don’t have blockchain knowledge, and crypto development skills are extremely rare (81:08–83:45).
• 3. Infrastructure: Usability (wallets, user control), consumer protections, better rails.

11. Stripe’s Culture and Crypto Buy-In

• Abrams relates a telling story about Stripe cofounder John Collison’s perspective on banks vs. stablecoins, illustrating how deeply Stripe’s leadership “gets it” (84:04–85:49).

“What’s the difference between a bank and Tether? One’s a giant institution holding a ton of money with no idea where it is… the other is a stablecoin.”
— John Collison, quoted by Zach Abrams (84:04)

• Internal product adoption at Stripe is now the best feedback loop to push crypto deeper into enterprise fintech stacks (86:05–87:53).

12. The Future: AI Agents as Stablecoin Users

• AIs as End Users: Abrams predicts that as with credit cards and the internet, AI will require a new money protocol—stablecoins and wallets—since agents can’t “own” fiat under KYC rules (88:19–90:31).

“AI agents will need their own accounts to make decisions… Stablecoins and wallets make that possible.”
— Zach Abrams (89:42)

Notable Quotes & Timestamps

• On the inevitability of stablecoins:
  “With financial products, people are rational. There was stigma and risk, but the tangible benefits win in the end.” (25:52)

• On the innovation cycle:
  “No, nothing is inevitable. The only things that happen are the things people fight to make happen.” (47:14)

• On AI as a new class of unbanked stablecoin users:
  “Every time there’s a new technological revolution, there’s a new form of money. I think stablecoins are that for AI.” (88:19)

Important Segments & Timestamps

• Zach’s Origin Story: 06:50–14:59
• Crypto x Fintech Convergence: 16:53–18:37
• Building in the Bear Market: 18:37–23:21
• Bridge’s Product & First Wins: 34:30–39:34
• Layer 2 v. Bank “Dumb Settlement”: 41:20–49:37
• Stablecoin Explosion Post-Genius Bill: 51:14–58:34
• Stripe’s Transformation: 58:34–62:36
• Why Tempo Exists: 65:17–71:45
• Future of Finance/Infrastructure: 76:50–81:08
• Adoption Barriers: 81:08–83:45
• Stripe’s Leadership Mindset: 84:04–85:49
• AI as Next User Base: 88:19–90:31

Tone & Style

• Candid, optimistic, occasionally irreverent.
• Mixes deep technical explanations with accessible metaphors.
• Abrams is practical, non-ideological, focused on tangible improvements over libertarian dogma.

Memorable Moments

• Lost Wire Horror Story: Ryan describes how opaque bank settlements still are, contrasting with real-time blockchain payments (22:15–23:21).
• First Customer Panic: The existential relief and fragility Bridge felt getting first product-market fit through a single startup, Zulu (34:30–37:35).
• Stripe Office Joke: John Collison’s deadpan about Tether vs. traditional banks, revealing Stripe’s shifting attitudes (84:04–85:49).

Conclusion

Stripe is all-in on stablecoins, seeing them as the logical successor to legacy infrastructure. The new “banking rails” will revolve around tokenized, programmable money, with hundreds of new issuers, app-specific chains, and even non-human entities (AI) as active participants. Current roadblocks are more cultural and regulatory than technical—success will hinge on relentless teams building the connective tissue and pushing payments primitives deeper into both fintech and crypto.