The stablecoin market just got a serious new contender — and it came with over 140 companies already on board. The launch of the Open USD stablecoin marks one of the most broadly backed entries into digital payments infrastructure in recent memory, uniting payment giants, global banks, crypto firms, and consumer tech companies around a single shared asset designed to move money at internet scale.
Summary
Key takeaways
- Open USD is a new stablecoin built for global money movement, allowing businesses to mint and redeem at no cost with no volume limits.
- Over 140 companies — including Visa, Stripe, Mastercard, BlackRock, Google, Coinbase, and Shopify — have signed up to use it.
- Partners earn revenue from the stablecoin’s reserves, minus a small management fee for operational costs.
- Governance sits with Open Standard, an independent company whose board is composed of participating partners.
- Open USD is expected to go live later this year and will serve as the default stablecoin on Stripe.
Open USD: A New Stablecoin for Global Money Movement
Most stablecoins were built for trading. Open USD is being built for business. The distinction matters more than it might seem at first glance — especially as stablecoin transaction volumes approach those of the ACH network, the backbone of U.S. electronic bank transfers.
Existing stablecoins carry real structural problems at commercial scale. Minting and redeeming fees become prohibitive at high volumes. Reserve earnings typically flow to the issuer, not to the businesses using the product. And companies building on third-party stablecoin infrastructure have limited influence over roadmap decisions that can directly affect their operations.
Open USD was designed around three principles to address exactly those friction points.
Key features and design principles
First, businesses can mint and redeem Open USD at no cost and with no artificial limits on volume — a direct response to the fee structures that make other stablecoins impractical at scale. Second, partners receive all earnings generated from Open USD’s reserves, with only a small management fee deducted to cover operational costs. Third, governance is collective: Open USD is operated by Open Standard, an independent company whose board is made up of the stablecoin’s own participating partners.
That last point is arguably the most structurally significant. Rather than one issuer controlling the asset and its evolution, decisions are made across a coalition of businesses — from payment processors to banks to crypto infrastructure providers. The model is designed to prevent any single actor from steering the stablecoin in ways that benefit only themselves.
Launch timing and goals
Open USD is expected to go live later this year. The goal, as framed by its backers, is to build something that matches not the scale of today’s digital economy, but where it is headed. Stripe, which will use Open USD as its default stablecoin, put it directly: the asset needs to be built for the 2040 economy, with transaction volumes and use cases that current infrastructure cannot fully anticipate.
Collaborative Governance and Revenue Model
The governance structure behind Open USD is what sets it apart from virtually every major stablecoin currently in circulation. Most stablecoins are controlled by a single issuer — meaning the issuer sets policy, earns reserve income, and controls development priorities. Open USD flips that dynamic entirely.
Governance by Open Standard and partner board
Open Standard operates as an independent entity, but its board is composed of Open USD’s partner companies. That structure gives the stablecoin’s largest users a direct seat at the table on decisions affecting the network. It also creates accountability mechanisms that single-issuer models structurally cannot offer.
Visa, one of the most prominent backers, framed its involvement in terms of trust infrastructure. In payments, Visa noted, scale only comes with trust — and as stablecoins evolve, the focus must shift from speed alone toward reliability, governance, and interoperability. Bringing the same operational rigor it applies to its global card network to Open USD is, in Visa’s framing, about building the trust layer that allows stablecoins to function confidently within the broader financial system.
Revenue sharing from reserves
The economics are equally novel. Partners earn revenue from Open USD’s reserves, minus only the operational management fee. In most stablecoin arrangements, the issuer captures that yield — often running into hundreds of millions of dollars annually at scale. Distributing that income across the partner network changes the incentive structure substantially, giving businesses a direct financial stake in the stablecoin’s growth and adoption.
Broad Industry Adoption and Strategic Partnerships
The coalition behind Open USD reads like a cross-section of global financial infrastructure. Over 140 companies from payments, banking, crypto, and consumer technology have already committed to the network — a sign that the project landed with credibility before a single transaction was processed.
Major businesses and financial institutions signed up
On the payments side: Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, Stripe, Adyen, Fiserv, Klarna, Affirm, Brex, Ramp, Western Union, MoneyGram, Remitly, and Worldline, among dozens of others. The banking contingent includes BlackRock, BNY, Standard Chartered, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, DBS, U.S. Bank, BBVA, Mizuho Financial Group, Westpac, Itaú, Chime, and many others spanning Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa.
The crypto and blockchain ecosystem is also well represented: Coinbase, Ripple, OKX, Bybit, Gemini, Fireblocks, MetaMask, Aave, eToro, Ledger, MoonPay, Anchorage Digital, Stellar, Polygon, Aptos Labs, and more. And from the broader tech sector: Google, Samsung Electronics, IBM, Shopify, Mercado Libre, DoorDash, Grab, Wix, and Rakuten Group.
That breadth is not incidental — it signals that Open USD is positioning itself as neutral infrastructure rather than a product tied to any single industry vertical.
Integration with Stripe as the default stablecoin
Perhaps the most commercially significant integration is with Stripe. Open USD will be the default stablecoin for businesses running on Stripe, one of the world’s largest payment processors by transaction volume. Stripe’s reasoning was explicit: businesses need a stablecoin designed for industrial-scale global use — built not for today’s commerce, but for an economy 15 years from now that will look fundamentally different from the current one.
BNY, meanwhile, has projected that the stablecoin market alone could reach $1.5 trillion by 2030 — and indicated it is exploring ways to support Open USD directly. That kind of institutional framing, from one of the world’s oldest and largest custodial banks, lends significant weight to the project at a time when many stablecoin launches still struggle to bridge the gap between crypto-native enthusiasm and traditional finance credibility.
Industry Perspectives on Open USD’s Potential
Across the coalition, there is a consistent thread: stablecoins are no longer a niche instrument. They are becoming financial infrastructure — and infrastructure requires governance, shared standards, and aligned incentives to function reliably across borders and institutions.
BNY framed it in terms of market evolution: a stablecoin with neutral governance and shared economics represents a combination that could unlock the next phase of digital asset growth. Chime described Open USD as helping create the foundation that stablecoins need to realize their potential as a common framework for moving value across the digital economy. Shopify pointed to what collective ecosystem-building means for merchants — when platforms build around stablecoins together, the result is more choice at checkout, more efficient money movement, and more opportunity for businesses of every size as stablecoins enter everyday commerce.
The analytical weight behind Open USD’s launch is substantial. A stablecoin that distributes revenue, operates under shared governance, eliminates minting costs, and launches with over 140 institutional backers is not simply competing with existing stablecoins — it is proposing a different model for how they should work. Whether that model gains traction will depend heavily on whether the network effects of its coalition prove durable once real transaction volumes begin. That question will start getting answered later this year.
FAQ
What is Open USD?
Open USD is a new stablecoin designed for global money movement. It allows businesses to mint and redeem the asset at no cost and with no volume limits, while partners earn revenue from the stablecoin’s reserves.
Who governs Open USD?
Open USD is governed collaboratively by Open Standard, an independent company whose board is composed of Open USD’s participating partner businesses, ensuring decisions reflect collective rather than individual interests.
Which companies have adopted Open USD?
Over 140 businesses have signed up, including Visa, Stripe, Mastercard, BlackRock, Google, Coinbase, and Shopify, alongside a broad range of banks, payment processors, crypto firms, and technology companies from around the world.
When will Open USD be available?
Open USD is expected to go live later this year. It will serve as the default stablecoin on Stripe at launch.
Article produced with the assistance of artificial intelligence and reviewed by the editorial team.
