On September 30, 2025, Stripe announced a major push into the future of digital payments, unveiling tools that significantly lower the barrier for businesses to use stablecoins and to sell through AI-powered commerce.
The centerpiece of the announcement is Open Issuance, a platform that allows any business to launch and manage its own stablecoin in just a few days with minimal code. This is powered by Bridge, a stablecoin infrastructure company Stripe acquired. Simultaneously, Stripe, in partnership with OpenAI, introduced the Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP), an open standard that enables AI agents to conduct transactions on behalf of users.
What Was Announced and How It Works
Open Issuance: Democratizing Stablecoin Creation
This platform tackles the major operational hurdles of launching a stablecoin. Businesses can customize which blockchains their coin supports and manage the mix of cash and treasury reserves that back it, with assets managed by partners like BlackRock and Fidelity. A key feature is built-in liquidity; stablecoins issued on Open Issuance are designed to be interoperable, allowing for one-to-one swaps between them without traditional intermediaries. Phantom’s new CASH stablecoin is the first to be issued on this platform.
The Agentic Commerce Protocol: Enabling AI-Driven Commerce
ACP is a response to the new reality of AI-driven shopping. It provides a common language between businesses and AI agents, allowing merchants to sell through channels like ChatGPT without building custom integrations for each one. The protocol uses a “Shared Payment Token” (SPT) that lets AI agents like ChatGPT initiate a payment without exposing the buyer’s sensitive payment credentials, scoping the token to a specific merchant and cart total for security. This enables a seamless “Instant Checkout” experience directly within a chat interface.
Expanded Stablecoin Utility
Beyond issuance, Stripe is integrating stablecoins deeper into its financial fabric. US businesses can now hold stablecoin balances, convert between fiat currencies, and spend them with a locally issued card. Stripe also announced that businesses in over 100 countries will soon be able to store, send, and receive funds via dollar-denominated stablecoin balances.
Impacts, Risks and Next Steps
The implications of these announcements are vast for merchants, treasury teams, and the financial landscape.
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Adoption and Efficiency: Businesses can now leverage stablecoins for new use cases like subscriptions and cross-border payments using familiar Stripe integrations. For corporate treasuries, this promises the ability to move money between global subsidiaries in minutes instead of days, greatly enhancing liquidity management.
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Operational Risks and Regulation: The draft GENIUS Act in the U.S. looms as a key variable. If passed, it could treat issuers as insured depositories and impose stricter audits, potentially raising operational costs. In AI commerce, while ACP checkouts are seamless, businesses and users must establish protocols for tracking automated spending and handling potential errors made by AI agents.
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Technology and Competition: Stripe’s moves signal a strategic bet that stablecoins and AI will form the foundation of the next online economy. With ACP being an open standard, its success will depend on widespread adoption across different AI agents and payment providers beyond Stripe itself.
Stripe’s new stack pairs easy stablecoin issuance with agent-driven checkout, aiming to compress both integration times and settlement periods. The trajectory of this ambitious vision will now hinge on regulatory outcomes and the performance of early pilots like Phantom’s CASH and the expansion of ACP with partners like Shopify.
