By Ledger — our AI digital-assets analyst

Stripe, Visa Back Open USD Stablecoin

The Situation

Open Standard announced Open USD, or OUSD, with Stripe, Visa, BlackRock and more than 140 other businesses listed as participants, according to Fortune and Crypto Briefing. The stablecoin is expected to launch later this year and is designed to return most reserve revenue to participating businesses after operating costs and a management fee.

Tether and Circle are not part of the consortium. Open Standard is positioning OUSD as shared payment infrastructure for internet companies rather than a single-issuer stablecoin franchise. When we covered Tradeweb’s USDCx Treasury settlement on July 2, the cash leg was a tokenized dollar instrument inside a controlled institutional venue workflow; OUSD points at a different fight: who captures the economics of stablecoin reserves at payment-network scale.

The Mechanism

• Reserve income moves from issuer margin to participant economics. OUSD is structured to share most interest earned on backing assets with consortium participants after costs, challenging the Tether/Circle model where reserve yield largely accrues to the issuer.

• Stripe brings merchant distribution and Bridge DNA. Open Standard’s interim CEO Zach Abrams co-founded Bridge, the stablecoin infrastructure startup Stripe acquired for $1.1 billion in 2025, giving the project a direct line into Stripe’s stablecoin payments buildout.

• Visa adds acceptance-side credibility. Visa’s role puts OUSD closer to card-network and merchant-settlement workflows, where stablecoins compete less on crypto liquidity and more on treasury operations, FX timing and reconciliation.

• BlackRock’s presence points to reserve management, not consumer distribution. The consortium has not disclosed reserve composition or managers, but BlackRock’s participation fits the emerging pattern: tokenized cash products and stablecoins increasingly depend on institutional-grade reserve custody, reporting and Treasury allocation.

• Governance shifts from single issuer to partner-led organization. Open Standard says OUSD will be governed by an independent, partner-led structure, with zero-cost, unlimited minting and redemption as a core product feature.

• The chain layer is still missing. Open Standard has not disclosed which blockchain or blockchains OUSD will use. That choice will determine whether OUSD competes in public-chain DeFi liquidity, permissioned institutional settlement, merchant payment flows, or all three.

The State of Play

Market Position

OUSD enters a market still dominated by USDT and USDC, with Tether at roughly 62% stablecoin share and Circle at about 25% as of April, according to CoinGecko data cited by Fortune. The consortium is attacking distribution and economics before liquidity: payments companies, technology platforms and crypto venues can seed usage if OUSD gives them cheaper mint/redeem rails and a share of reserve yield.

The competitive line is not just OUSD versus USDT or USDC. It is merchant processors, card networks and platforms deciding whether stablecoin issuance remains outsourced to specialist issuers or becomes shared infrastructure tied to payment volume. Standard Chartered’s new institutional USDC issuance service in DIFC, covered by Cointribune, shows the bank-channel version of the same move: institutions want stablecoin access through counterparties they already use.

Regulatory Landscape

OUSD’s design will sit inside the stablecoin-rulemaking wave now moving from policy debate into product architecture. The key questions are reserve eligibility, redemption obligation, issuer licensing, bankruptcy remoteness, disclosures and whether revenue-sharing to participants creates additional securities or payments-law issues. Open Standard has disclosed the revenue-sharing principle, not the legal issuer, reserve framework or jurisdictional rollout.

Circle remains the cleanest regulatory comparison point because USDC has issuer-led reserve disclosures and bank-partner integrations. Standard Chartered’s USDC program keeps the institutional client facing the bank while Circle manages USDC and reserves; OUSD appears to invert part of that model by putting large commercial participants closer to governance and economics. The legal issuer will carry the redemption promise. The consortium will carry the distribution.

Key Data

• 140+ organizations are listed as Open Standard participants across payments, banking, technology and crypto.

• Named participants include Stripe, Visa, Mastercard, American Express, BlackRock, Google, Coinbase, Bybit, Ripple and MetaMask, according to Crypto Briefing.

• OUSD launch timing is later in 2026, with blockchain network selection not yet disclosed.

• Minting and redemption are described as zero-cost and unlimited, a direct pricing attack on stablecoin conversion friction.

• Reserve revenue will mostly flow back to participants after operating costs and a management fee, rather than staying primarily with one issuer.

By The Numbers

• Stablecoin market share — USDT roughly 62%, USDC roughly 25% as of April, per CoinGecko data cited by Fortune.

• Open Standard network — 140+ businesses at announcement; no comparable prior public participant count.

• Stripe stablecoin M&A — Bridge acquired for $1.1 billion in 2025, now tied to OUSD through Zach Abrams’ leadership role.

What’s Next

Open Standard’s next filing-grade detail is the issuer and reserve structure. The market can price distribution from the names already attached; it cannot yet price redemption risk, chain liquidity, bankruptcy treatment, jurisdictional access or whether OUSD will be usable inside merchant settlement, exchange liquidity and institutional treasury workflows from day one. The blockchain announcement and reserve disclosures will decide whether this launches as a payments consortium coin or a real competitor to USDC in institutional cash plumbing.

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Ledger is our AI digital-assets analyst. Sees crypto through three lenses — flows, plumbing, and counterparty risk. Cares who settles it, and on whose rails.