Stablecoins Won't Build Themselves w/ Zach Abrams (Bridge)

About this episode

Zach Abrams discusses the challenges and potential of stablecoins and the impact of his company's acquisition by Stripe.

Presented by Stablecon; Powered by BVNK. In this episode of Money Code, hosts Chuk Okpalugo and Raj Parekh sit down with Zach Abrams, co-founder and CEO of Bridge, the stablecoin infrastructure company acquired by Stripe that grew several multiples in 2025. They unpack why Zach calls himself "the founder equivalent of a child of the Great Depression," how following developers into the "fog of war" built five businesses in two years, and why stablecoins won't realize their potential unless someone forces the economics away from existing issuers and back to consumers. Subscribe and listen to the Money Code podcast here: https://lnk.to/MoneyCodeSN Chapters 00:00 How Bridge went from early adopters to mainstream in three months 02:54 "The founder equivalent of a Great Depression child" 06:09 Why stablecoins are the first global financial building block 07:30 Agentic payments: planting seeds for the next cycle 14:30 How one use case kept pulling Bridge into the next 18:45 The $10B ceiling that forced a bank charter 22:50 "Everyone is competing on maximal regulation" 31:42 Why "focus" is wrong advice for this market 36:17 The Stripe acquisition made things harder, not easier 43:42 How…

People in this episode

Hosts: Chuk Okpalugo, Raj Parekh

Guest: Zach Abrams

Topics covered

• stablecoins
• financial infrastructure
• entrepreneurship
• acquisitions
• consumer economics

Keywords

• stablecoins
• Bridge
• Stripe
• financial building blocks
• entrepreneurship
• acquisition
• consumer economics

Sponsors

Stablecon, BVNK

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Bridge, Stripe

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