Open Standard introduced Open USD on June 30, 2026. The token, ticker OUSD, arrives as a consortium stablecoin rather than a single-issuer product. More than 140 organizations have already signed on as founding partners. Notably, the lineup spans payments, banking, big tech, and crypto infrastructure in roughly equal measure. The company plans to go live later this year, with native issuance on Solana from day one.
Zach Abrams leads the new entity as founding CEO. He previously co-founded Bridge, the stablecoin infrastructure firm Stripe acquired in 2024. Open Standard operates as an independent company governed by a board drawn from its partner organizations. Therefore, the structure resembles a payment network like Visa or Mastercard more than a traditional crypto issuer. That model is the core idea behind the launch.
BREAKING: Open USD is launching natively on Solana from day one.
— Solana (@solana) June 30, 2026
A new shared stablecoin, owned and governed by its partners. No mint or redeem fees, no volume caps, and nearly all the reserve economics flow back to the businesses building it. https://t.co/s4WJ89DA9B pic.twitter.com/eWyK0JsLmB
A consortium spanning payments, banks, tech, and crypto
The Open USD partner roster reads like a cross-section of the global financial stack. Importantly, no other stablecoin launch has assembled this mix of incumbents at announcement. The breadth of the coalition signals that the product targets enterprise payment flows, not retail crypto trading.
The 140-plus partners group cleanly into four categories:
- Payment networks and processors: Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, Stripe, Adyen, Fiserv, Checkout.com, Nuvei, Remitly, Western Union.
- Financial institutions: BlackRock, BNY, Standard Chartered, DBS, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, U.S. Bank, BBVA, Mizuho, Chime, SoFi.
- Technology and commerce: Google, Samsung Electronics, IBM, Shopify, Mercado Libre, DoorDash, Infosys, Grab, Cloudflare, Wix.
- Crypto ecosystem: Coinbase, Solana, Ripple, Crypto.com, Fireblocks, Aave, MetaMask, Polygon, Stellar.
Each category brings a distinct distribution channel. Payment processors can route stablecoin settlement through existing merchant rails. Banks supply reserve custody and fiat on-ramps. Tech platforms can embed OUSD inside checkout flows for billions of end users. Crypto-native firms handle on-chain liquidity and developer tooling.
Zero-fee mechanics and a partner yield share
Open Standard built three principles into the OUSD design. First, the token offers zero fees on mint and redemption, with no artificial volume caps. Second, partners receive the reserve yield generated by the underlying assets, minus a small operational fee retained by Open Standard. Third, the partner board governs protocol decisions collectively.
The yield-sharing model marks the sharpest departure from existing stablecoins. Tether and Circle collect billions in reserve income annually. By contrast, that revenue flows largely to the issuing company rather than to ecosystem participants. Open USD redirects most of that yield back to the firms moving the volume.
The economic logic ties partner growth directly to partner earnings. As OUSD circulating supply rises, the reserve base grows, and partners share larger payouts. Consequently, every member firm has a financial reason to push adoption inside its own product. That alignment is what Open Standard is selling.
Abrams framed the rationale plainly in the announcement. He said existing stablecoins have real strengths, but enterprise users need something open, low-cost, high-throughput, and aligned to their interests. The pitch lands at a moment when stablecoin volume is approaching trillions in annual settlement. BNY analysts project the category could reach $1.5 trillion in circulation by 2030.
Solana on day one, with more chains to follow
Solana confirmed that OUSD will launch natively on its network at go-live. The chain has become the leading venue for high-throughput stablecoin payments over the last 18 months. Additionally, Open Standard signaled that OUSD will deploy on Tempo and other Layer-1 networks shortly after launch. The multi-chain approach is consistent with the consortium’s broader interoperability mandate.
The Solana selection also reflects partner overlap. Stripe, Visa, and Shopify have all expanded stablecoin payment integrations on Solana during 2025 and 2026. Therefore, embedding OUSD natively reduces friction for the partners already routing flows through that ecosystem. Crypto.com, Coinbase, and Fireblocks bring custody and exchange access on top of that base.
Why this puts pressure on USDC and USDT
Circle’s stock dropped sharply on the news, as Investing.com reported the same day. Markets read the Open Standard launch as a direct threat to the USDC business model. The reason is straightforward. If Stripe, Visa, Mastercard, and Coinbase route enterprise volume through OUSD instead of USDC, Circle loses both float and distribution.
Tether faces a different challenge. USDT dominates emerging-market trading and remittances, but it lacks the bank and payment-network partnerships Open USD assembled at launch. Meanwhile, OUSD enters with regulated payment processors and major U.S. banks already committed. That regulatory posture matters under the GENIUS Act, which Congress enacted in July 2025.
The combination of zero fees, partner yield, and consortium governance also raises the bar competitively. Smaller stablecoin issuers will struggle to match the distribution. Larger ones will face pressure to share more economics with their distribution partners. As a result, the entire stablecoin business model could shift toward shared-yield structures.
What to watch next
The next milestones for Open USD center on three questions. First, when does the token actually go live, and what does the initial reserve composition look like. Second, which partners adopt OUSD as their default settlement token inside their own products. Third, how regulators in the U.S., UK, and EU classify a consortium issuer under existing payment-stablecoin frameworks.
Stripe has already indicated that OUSD will become its default business stablecoin. That single commitment routes enormous merchant volume through the new token. Visa, in its statement, emphasized that stablecoins must now focus on reliability, governance, and interoperability rather than raw speed. BlackRock’s Samara Cohen called Open USD a constructive step toward giving businesses more choice in tokenized dollar access.
The Open Standard launch reframes the stablecoin race as a contest between single-issuer economics and shared-yield consortiums. If the model works, OUSD becomes the default dollar layer for a wide slice of global payments. If it stalls, USDC and USDT keep their lead. Either way, the competitive picture for stablecoins changed on June 30.
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