140 Firms Said "Hold My Stablecoin" — Open USD Drops With Visa, Stripe, Coinbase In Tow 🪙

A coalition of more than 140 financial institutions, payment providers, technology firms, and crypto companies has unveiled Open USD, a stablecoin built around shared governance and partner-owned economics rather than a single issuer. The initiative is organized under Open Standard, an independent company whose board is composed of participating partners, and the network is scheduled to go live later this year.

Founding CEO Zach Abrams framed the project as a response to structural limitations in incumbent stablecoins. "Existing stablecoins have great strengths, but to use them at scale, businesses need something that's open, low-cost, high-throughput, broadly accessible, and aligned to their interests," Abrams said. Open Standard outlined three design principles: businesses can mint and redeem the stablecoin at no cost with no artificial limits on volume, partners share the earnings generated on the stablecoin's reserves, and developers are insulated from third-party issuer roadmaps.

The consortium spans multiple industries, including global payment networks, banks, fintech firms, crypto companies, and enterprise software providers. Participants include Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Stripe, Adyen, Fiserv, BlackRock, BNY, Standard Chartered, DBS, U.S. Bank, Coinbase, Bybit, OKX, Ripple, Crypto.com, Fireblocks, MetaMask, Aave, Solana, Polygon, Stellar, Shopify, DoorDash, Google, and IBM. Founding members also include MoneyGram, Shopify, Google, IBM, and Standard Chartered, among others.

Several partners outlined how they expect the network to support future payment infrastructure. Stripe President of Technology and Business Will Gaybrick said Open USD would become the default stablecoin for businesses running on Stripe, while Visa Chief Product and Strategy Officer Jack Forestell said governance, interoperability, and trust would be essential as stablecoins become more deeply integrated into the global financial system. The consortium said Open USD will go live later this year.