Open USD Arrives: How 140+ Giants Including Visa, Mastercard, and Coinbase Are Rewriting Stablecoin Economics

A landmark alliance of more than 140 financial institutions, technology companies, and crypto firms has officially unveiled Open USD (OUSD) — a yield-sharing, dollar-pegged stablecoin designed to fundamentally disrupt the $300 billion stablecoin industry. The coalition operates under a newly formed entity called Open Standard, with Zach Abrams, co-founder of Bridge — the stablecoin infrastructure company acquired by Stripe in 2024 — at the helm.

The initiative brings together an unprecedented mix of industry heavyweights. Payment giants Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover are on board, alongside major financial institutions such as BNY, Standard Chartered, DBS, and U.S. Bank. Tech players including Google, IBM, and Shopify have also joined the effort. The crypto side is equally stacked, with Coinbase, Ripple, MetaMask, Aave, Bybit, OKX, Galaxy, Fireblocks, and Anchorage Digital all listed as partners.

At the heart of Open USD's appeal is its fee structure — or rather, the absence of one. Unlike existing stablecoins, OUSD charges no minting fees, no redemption fees, and imposes no volume caps. More importantly, the majority of interest earned from reserves is redistributed back to the companies using the stablecoin, with Open Standard retaining only a management fee.

This model directly challenges how Circle and Tether currently operate. Both companies back their stablecoins with short-term U.S. Treasury instruments and retain the generated yield entirely. Circle's USDC holds a market cap of approximately $73 billion, while Tether's USDT commands around $145 billion. OUSD's proposition is simple: let the distribution network share in the profits.

Markets reacted swiftly to the announcement. Circle's stock dropped by as much as 15% on Tuesday, underscoring how significant a competitive threat Open USD represents to USDC's business model.

Governance under Open Standard is structured to avoid centralized control. Rather than a single issuer making all key decisions, the organization will operate on a shared decision-making model distributed among its partner companies — a deliberate departure from traditional stablecoin issuance.

"Existing stablecoins have great strengths," Abrams stated, "but to use them at scale, businesses need something that's open, low-cost, high-throughput, broadly accessible, and aligned to their interests."

Visa's head of crypto, Cuy Sheffield, confirmed the company's participation publicly, writing on X that Visa is joining Open Standard alongside more than 100 initial partners with a shared mission of issuing Open USD.

Open USD is slated to launch later in 2026 across four major blockchain networks: Solana, Stellar, Base, and Polygon. Tempo CEO Matt Huang confirmed that OUSD will be natively issued on Tempo's network from day one, covering payments, liquidity, exchanges, and DeFi applications.

Open Standard is not the first to test this cooperative model. Paxos leads the Global Dollar Network (USDG), backed by Robinhood, Kraken, and Galaxy Digital, built on the same yield-sharing premise. Meanwhile, in Europe, a group of 37 banks and payment providers is rallying around Qivalis, a euro-denominated stablecoin, as part of a broader push to reduce reliance on U.S. dollar-based digital assets.

The timing of OUSD's launch is no coincidence. Stablecoins have evolved far beyond crypto trading, now powering cross-border payments, merchant settlements, and corporate treasury management at scale. According to projections from Citi, the total stablecoin market could reach $4 trillion by 2030 — making the battle for market share more consequential than ever.