140 Firms, One Stablecoin, Zero Mint Fees: Meet OUSD, the Coin Circle Can't Ignore 💸

More than 140 financial institutions, payment networks, technology firms and crypto companies have signed on as founding partners of Open USD (OUSD), a US dollar-pegged stablecoin built by independent company Open Standard and set to go live later this year, according to a Tuesday announcement. The consortium spans global payments (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Stripe, Adyen, Fiserv), banks (BNY, Standard Chartered, DBS, U.S. Bank), asset managers (BlackRock), crypto firms (Coinbase, Bybit, OKX, Ripple, Crypto.com, Fireblocks, MetaMask, Aave, Solana, Polygon, Stellar), and enterprise software and commerce providers (Shopify, DoorDash, Google, IBM), with MoneyGram also among the participants.

Open Standard, led by founding CEO Zach Abrams, said the stablecoin is designed around three principles: businesses can mint and redeem OUSD at no cost with no artificial volume limits; partners receive all earnings generated from the stablecoin's reserves; and governance is shared through an independent board composed of participating partners. "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. 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 announcement triggered a sharp move in shares of Circle Internet Group, the issuer of USDC. Circle stock closed Tuesday at $62.63, down 17.55% from the previous session, according to Yahoo Finance, before rising 2.44% to $64.18 in premarket trading as of 11 am UTC on Wednesday. Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire, posting on X, argued that stablecoin networks are platform businesses powered by network effects built over years of integration, liquidity and regulatory work, and questioned whether permanently offering free, unlimited minting and redemption would remain sustainable at scale. Citing blockchain analytics firm Artemis, Allaire said USDC processed nearly $30 trillion in on-chain transactions during the first quarter of 2026, accounting for roughly 80% of all dollar-denominated stablecoin transaction volume, with USDT accounting for the remaining 20% and all other dollar stablecoins combined less than 0.5%. He also said Circle's partnership with Coinbase around USDC "remains as strong as ever."

Industry analysts offered mixed views on OUSD's prospects. Analysts at Bernstein wrote that OUSD could become the "strongest and first new entrant to challenge the duopoly of Circle and Tether," citing its reach across payments, banking, technology and commerce, while noting that governance, operational architecture and the revenue-sharing formula remain open questions and pointing out that Circle spends close to $500 million on marketing, infrastructure, technology and compliance. Lorenzo Valente, director of research at ARK Invest, called the announcement a "giant" letter of intent and said OUSD faces a cold-start problem created by USDC and USDT's entrenched liquidity, adding that "the partners are backing rivals: Stripe owns Bridge and has its own stack, Coinbase is wedded to USDC, banks are building their own deposit tokens and the card networks support every token out there." Rhino.fi co-founder and CEO Will Harborne said the coordination of Visa, Stripe, Mastercard, Coinbase and Google sends an unmistakable signal that Open USD has a real chance to win share from USDT and USDC, because reserve revenue flows back to everyone who holds it.

The stablecoin market is currently valued at more than $312 billion according to DefiLlama and is projected to reach up to $4 trillion by 2030. The OUSD launch comes after US President Donald Trump signed the GENIUS Act into law last year, establishing a regulatory framework for payment stablecoins, with federal authorities still finalizing implementing regulations. Allaire said Circle welcomed "continued innovation and competition in the space" and would soon expand support for both US dollar-pegged and non-US dollar stablecoins, while reaffirming the company's focus on building stablecoin infrastructure and driving customer and partner success.