Open Standard has unveiled Open USD (OUSD), a stablecoin backed by 140+ companies including big names like Visa, Stripe, Ripple and BlackRock. The stablecoin market is already massive, now it might have become more competitive.
The stablecoin market just got more interesting. Circle (NYSE: CRCL), the company behind USDC, a dominant player in this market, saw its stablecoin slide approximately 14% intraday after Open Standard unveiled the Open USD (OUSD) stablecoin.
OUSD is not just backed by its creator, there are over 140 financial, technology, and crypto companies behind this. And it is not a big set of small companies, this set of companies includes fintech behemoths: Visa, Ripple, BlackRock, Mastercard, and Coinbase.
The launch introduces a new revenue-sharing model and is potentially a direct threat to USDC’s dominance.
The stablecoin industry has a new heavyweight entrant. Open Standard officially announced Open USD, or OUSD, a programmable dollar-pegged stablecoin designed for enterprise payments and digital finance.
Unlike traditional stablecoins, OUSD is backed by a consortium of more than 140 companies rather than a single issuer, bringing together payment networks, fintech firms, banks, asset managers and crypto companies under one initiative.
Founding partners include Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, Coinbase, BlackRock, Google, Samsung, and Ripple, among many others.
The project is led by Zach Abrams, co-founder of Bridge, the stablecoin infrastructure company acquired by Stripe in a $1.1 billion deal in 2024.
According to Open Standard, businesses will be able to mint and redeem OUSD without fees or volume restrictions. More importantly, reserve earnings generated from assets backing the stablecoin will largely be distributed among participating partners after deducting a management fee.
That approach differs sharply from the existing model used by major stablecoin issuers, where reserve income is typically retained by the issuing company.
Reacting to the launch, Visa's chief product and strategy officer said, "Excited to see Open USD come to life. Connecting this kind of infrastructure to real-world payments is critical, and Visa is ready to help bring it into everyday use."
MoonPay Stablecoin Head Max von Wallenberg also welcomed the initiative, stating, "Excited to be part of this network. Anything that allows Iron and our partners to move liquidity in institutional size, sans redemption taxes, with network effects built in—let's go!"
The announcement immediately hit Circle’s investors, with shares of Circle falling about 14%. OUSD poses a direct challenge to USDC’s market position, one of the world's largest dollar-backed stablecoins.
Circle currently earns a significant portion of its revenue from interest generated on reserves backing USDC. Open USD's decision to share most of those earnings with participating businesses changes the economic incentives for companies building payment and settlement services.
Rather than making the issuer the primary beneficiary, Open Standard is positioning the stablecoin as shared infrastructure for internet payments. The project will be governed by a board made up of consortium partners instead of a single controlling company.
Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire responded by welcoming increased competition, saying the stablecoin market is large enough to support multiple networks. Allaire noted that Circle was focused on expanding USDC’s footprint across financial institutions and payment providers.
It's not just Circle’s share price that dropped, Coinbase shares also dropped by 4%. While Coinbase is one of Open USD's partners, Coinbase has an equity stake in Circle.
USDC is the product of a joint venture between Coinbase and Circle. Presently, Circle handles USDC’s issuance and governance.
Open Standard says OUSD is designed to solve practical challenges businesses face when adopting stablecoins at scale, including transaction costs, accessibility and economic incentives.
The stablecoin is expected to launch later this year with native support on Solana and Base, alongside Tempo, the payments-focused blockchain associated with Bridge's infrastructure.
The launch also shows growing institutional confidence in blockchain-based payment infrastructure following the passage of the GENIUS Act.
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