Bridge: a new stablecoin network from former Coinbase executives

Some former executives of Coinbase are launching a global payment network based on stablecoin called Bridge. 

According to what was revealed by Fortune, they have raised as much as 58 million dollars to finance its development. 

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What is Bridge, the new stablecoin network by Coinbase

Bridge is a global payment network based on stablecoin founded by two former Coinbase executives, Zach Abrams and Sean Yu. 

Abrams is also the CEO of the company, and in the past, he was Chief Product Officer at Brex, then Head of Consumer at Coinbase, and later GM at Square.

Yu, on the other hand, is the Chief Technology Officer, and in the past, he has been a Staff Engineer and Engineering Manager at Airbnb, Coinbase, Doordash, and Square. 

Before Bridge, Abrams and Yu had founded a P2P payments company, Evenly, which was later acquired by Jack Dorsey’s Square.

Bridge is working on creating an infrastructure useful for developers to fully leverage stablecoin. 

The company was launched 18 months ago, and since then they claim to have already provided millions of people with faster and cheaper access to cross-border payments. They also claim to have enabled governments and aid agencies to distribute funds to thousands of people efficiently. 

The objective is to develop a global payment network based on stablecoin as an alternative to Swift and credit cards. 

Among the investors in Bridge stand out Sequoia, Ribbit, and Index, and among the clients Coinbase and SpaceX. 

Among the services provided are the integration of payments in stablecoin in a few days, and above all the sending of money worldwide in a few minutes and at very low costs. 

Up to today, Bridge has processed a total annual payment volume of over 5 billion dollars.

The financing

Fortune has revealed that the company in total has already raised funding for 58 million dollars. 

Of these, 40 million come from a recent investment by Sequoia and Ribbit, while the others come from previous undisclosed funding. 

Not much more is known about it, not even the overall valuation of the società. 

It is only known that, unlike other crypto companies that operate with stablecoins, Bridge has the support of some of the main generalist venture capital firms in Silicon Valley, including notably Sequoia, Ribbit, and Index.

The development

As the name itself suggests, they are working on a system that allows the creation of bridges between different blockchains. 

In fact, Haun Ventures partner, Chris Ahn, revealed to Fortune that there would actually be no need for Bridge if there were only one stablecoin on a single blockchain, and that its added value lies precisely in allowing developers to move seamlessly between fiat and different stablecoins and between different blockchains.

Bridge was created as a set of low-level APIs to allow companies to use a stablecoin without any particular issues. 

The future developments foresee that Bridge will make stablecoins a kind of global payment railway, allowing developers to integrate crypto payments in stablecoins seamlessly. The project is considered a Web3 analogue of Stripe. 

The clients

The two most prominent current clients of Bridge are Coinbase and SpaceX by Elon Musk.

In particular, SpaceX uses Bridge to collect payments in different jurisdictions in various currencies and move them via stablecoin into its global treasury. 

The company, however, also works with crypto companies, such as the Stellar blockchain and the Bitcoin Strike app, providing the infrastructure for stablecoin payment functionalities.

Instead, Coinbase uses it to help users transfer USDT on Tron and USDC on Base, its layer-2 for Ethereum. 

The creator of Base, and former colleague of Abrams at Cinbase, Jesse Pollak, stated: 

“The work they are doing to help traditional companies enter the blockchain is very important. All companies will have all their assets on the blockchain, because it will be faster, cheaper, and more globally available.”

Note that an important focus for the company will be regulatory compliance. 

The majority of the new funds will be used for development, but it will also be needed to create stable relationships with global financial institutions to enable on-ramps and off-ramps in different currencies. The company has already acquired licenses in 48 states and a VASP license from Poland, and is applying for additional licenses in New York, Europe, and elsewhere.

According to Abrams, although stablecoins have not yet gained much trust among non-crypto companies, the growing regulatory landscape, and the basic economy, could allow them to conquer the business.