A new dollar stablecoin backed by some of the biggest names in payments — Coinbase, Mastercard, Shopify, Stripe and Visa — went live last week with more than 1 billion USD in liquidity commitments, and its founders are promising to hand most of the company itself to the businesses that help it grow.
By David Chen | October 1, 2026
Open USD, the stablecoin issued by the company Open Standard, launched on September 23 across four blockchains — Ethereum, Solana, Coinbase’s Base and Stripe-backed Tempo — according to a CoinDesk interview with CEO Zach Abrams reported by crypto.news. It enters a stablecoin market worth more than 300 billion USD, where Tether’s USDT accounts for about 143 billion USD and Circle’s USDC roughly 74 billion USD. In other words, the new token is challenging the two giants of digital dollars with a radically different business model: instead of keeping the interest earned on reserves for itself, Open Standard plans to share nearly all of it — and even ownership of the company — with the businesses that use OUSD.
The Hook: A Stablecoin That Pays You Back
First, a quick explainer for anyone new to this. A stablecoin is a crypto token designed to hold a steady value of one US dollar, backed by real dollars or Treasury assets held in reserve. Issuers make money the same way a bank does: they collect interest on those reserves. Tether, for example, keeps most of that interest for itself. Circle, which issues USDC, shares part of its reserve revenue with distribution partners like Coinbase.
Open Standard wants to go much further. On its website, the company says it will share nearly all reserve revenue with companies that help increase adoption, and it lists fee-free minting and redemption among OUSD’s features — meaning businesses can convert dollars to tokens and back without paying the issuer a toll. “We want to be the most useful stablecoin, the same way the U.S. dollar is useful,” Abrams said in the launch interview.
On-Chain Evidence: Where OUSD Lives and Who Is Committing Cash
The five founding partners — Coinbase, Mastercard, Shopify, Stripe and Visa — have committed more than 1 billion USD to support OUSD liquidity over the coming months. According to Abrams, each partner contributes in the way that suits its business: some may hold OUSD on their balance sheets, others may keep tokens on blockchains or support market-making so that buyers and sellers always find a counterparty. All five have also invested in Open Standard itself and received equal initial equity stakes.
- 1 billion USD+ — liquidity commitments from the five founding partners
- 4 networks — Ethereum, Solana, Base and Tempo at launch
- 200+ companies — the network seeking to integrate OUSD, including SBI Holdings, UBS and Jeeves
- 143 billion USD — USDT’s share of a stablecoin market worth over 300 billion USD
The network is growing. Abrams said the roster of companies looking to integrate OUSD has passed 200 businesses, with Japan’s SBI Holdings, Swiss bank UBS and fintech Jeeves among the latest additions. BlackRock, BNY and Standard Chartered appeared in the original group announced in June. Notably, Abrams pushed back on describing the project as a consortium run by hundreds of participants — management makes the operating decisions, he said, while a smaller founding group holds ownership and governance roles. He expects that founding group to eventually expand to about 10 to 12 companies, with a board of directors drawn from them.
The Core Conflict: Why This Terrifies Circle Investors
The most concrete market impact of the Open USD launch has already shown up in one place: Circle’s stock. On July 15, after the OUSD project was first detailed, Mizuho cut its price target for Circle from 85 to 50 USD and downgraded the stock from Neutral to Underperform, citing competition from Open USD. The bank’s analysts, led by Dan Dolev, warned the new model could upend the economics of distributing stablecoins, and raised their estimate for Circle’s 2027 distribution and transaction expense ratio from 64 percent to 73 percent. They also cut their adjusted EBITDA forecast for the company from 1.09 billion USD to 699 million USD.
The logic is simple. If Open Standard gives away nearly all reserve revenue to partners, those partners have a strong financial reason to push OUSD over USDC. And since Coinbase, Visa and Mastercard — all important USDC partners — are also Open Standard founders, analysts have openly questioned whether backing the new token means those companies will gradually reduce support for Circle’s. Adding another wrinkle, Tempo chief business officer Dan Romero said removing minting and burning charges could meaningfully cut costs for businesses moving large sums between conventional dollars and stablecoins.
Market Implications: Ambitious Targets and Real Questions
Romero, whose Tempo network is one of OUSD’s four launch chains, projected roughly 1 billion USD of OUSD liquidity on Tempo within the next few months, more than 10 billion USD during 2027 and potentially over 100 billion USD in the following years. Those figures are his expectations for Tempo’s share, not balances confirmed at launch — investors should treat them as projections from an interested party, not facts.
Open Standard’s leadership also comes with pedigree: Abrams co-founded and ran Bridge, the stablecoin infrastructure company that Stripe acquired in a 1.1 billion USD deal, and Bridge recently issued a euro-backed token for Revolut. Abrams said network participants are already requesting stablecoins in other currencies, and that Open Standard’s decisions on additional tokens will depend on demand from companies in the network.
The Verdict: What This Means for Your Wallet
For everyday crypto users, the immediate effect of more stablecoin competition is likely lower costs and more choices — fee-free minting and redemption is a genuine improvement for businesses, and those savings tend to flow downstream to consumers through cheaper transfers and payments. Longer term, the bigger story is the reward model. If Open Standard really distributes most of its equity and reserve revenue to partners over the next four to five years, it could pull the payment industry’s heavyweights decisively into crypto rails — card settlement, cross-border transfers and foreign exchange are the markets Abrams explicitly targets. The risks are equally clear: adoption targets remain projections, the token is a week old, and its five powerful founders now have competing incentives involving both USDC and OUSD. Watch whether real transaction volumes follow the liquidity commitments — that will tell you whether this is a genuine challenger or a well-funded experiment.
The cryptocurrency market remains highly volatile. This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice.
mizuho cutting circle from 85 to 50 over this says everything. visa and mastercard literally get paid to route OUSD instead of USDC lol
getting paid to route OUSD only works until circle offers visa the same rebate. this ends as a bidding war over checkout rails and whoever blinks first loses margin
85 to 50 felt like an overreaction on day one. circle still settles trillions a year, but mizuho pricing in partners getting paid to leave usdc is the part that stings
Sharing the reserve interest with partners is the actual story here. Tether and Circle keep that yield for themselves, now Visa and Shopify have a direct financial reason to route volume to Open USD. 1B is small vs 143B USDT but the incentive flips the game
exactly, the float income is Tether’s whole moat. once merchants get a cut of it, every payment processor has a spreadsheet reason to switch rails
1B vs 143B USDT sounds tiny until you notice the partners behind open usd also control the checkout buttons. in payments distribution beats float every time
distribution beats float sure, but base is coinbase owned and tempo is stripe backed. half the launch chains are the partners own rails, feels less like open and more like a consortium
distribution beats float is exactly right. circle can keep the bigger float, but when visa routes OUSD by default at checkout the float follows eventually
four chains at launch including Tempo is ambitious for a week old token. equity giveaway to partners is clever but usdc survived the 2023 wobble for a reason, incumbency is real