On September 30, 2026, five of the largest companies in global payments — Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, Coinbase, and Shopify — launched Open USD (OUSD), a jointly issued dollar stablecoin with $1 billion in committed liquidity and $666 million minted at launch. The token is issued by Bridge, the sta...
"The overwhelming majority of the company's equity will be distributed to partners over time, based on their contribution to the coin's growth." — Zach Abrams, CEO, Open Standard
On September 30, 2026, five of the largest companies in global payments — Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, Coinbase, and Shopify — launched Open USD (OUSD), a jointly issued dollar stablecoin with $1 billion in committed liquidity and $666 million minted at launch. The token is issued by Bridge, the stablecoin infrastructure firm Stripe acquired for $1.1 billion in 2025, with reserves held at BlackRock, Lead Bank, and BNY. Within two days, outstanding supply reached $668.5 million, backed by $588.2 million in U.S. Treasuries and $80.3 million in cash.
The launch marks the first time competing payment networks have co-invested in a single stablecoin. Each founding partner holds an equal equity stake in Open Standard, the entity behind OUSD. The structure inverts the economics of the stablecoin market: rather than concentrating reserve yield in the hands of a single issuer, OUSD routes the majority of interest income to distribution partners in proportion to the supply and activity they generate. Circle's stock dropped 13% on the announcement. Tether's $184 billion in circulation remains untouched for now.
OUSD enters a $307 billion stablecoin market dominated by two incumbents. Its competitive thesis rests not on technology — the token runs on Ethereum, Solana, Base, and Tempo — but on distribution. The five founding partners collectively control more than 175 million merchant locations, 400 million consumer accounts, and the payment rails that process over $20 trillion annually. The question is whether shared ownership and revenue-sharing can overcome the network effects that have kept USDT and USDC entrenched.
OUSD went live on September 30, 2026, across four blockchains: Ethereum, Solana, Coinbase's Base, and Stripe-backed Tempo. Businesses could begin minting and redeeming OUSD 1:1 against the U.S. dollar at no cost through three on-ramps: BVNK (owned by Mastercard), Stripe, and the Visa Stablecoin Platform. Coinbase access opened on October 1.
Bridge's transparency API reported $668.5 million in OUSD outstanding as of October 2. The $1 billion commitment figure referenced in Open Standard's announcement represents near-term liquidity pledges from founding partners, not a single minting event. Monthly reserve attestations are planned.
The token launched with immediate exchange listings on Coinbase, Kraken, and Uniswap. Open Standard disclosed more than 200 partner institutions at launch, including financial institutions, fintechs, banks, and other businesses. Bloomberg reported more than 100 member companies including Google and BlackRock.
Zach Abrams, co-founder of Bridge and formerly at Stripe, left Stripe to serve as full-time CEO of Open Standard.
Open Standard operates as a consortium with a governance structure distinct from existing stablecoin issuers.
Ownership: The five founding partners — Coinbase, Mastercard, Shopify, Stripe, and Visa — each hold equal initial equity stakes. According to Abrams, the "overwhelming majority" of the company's equity will be distributed to partners over time based on their contribution to OUSD's growth.
Issuance: Bridge, the Stripe-owned infrastructure company, serves as the technical issuer. Bridge handles minting, burning, and reserve management. The issuer role is administrative — governance sits with Open Standard.
Reserves: Backing consists of U.S. Treasuries and cash deposits held at BlackRock, Lead Bank, and BNY. The reserve composition mirrors the GENIUS Act requirements for payment stablecoins, which mandate reserves in high-quality liquid assets.
Minting and Redemption: Businesses mint and burn OUSD at a 1:1 rate against the dollar at zero cost. Three integration paths are available at launch: Mastercard (via BVNK), Stripe, and Visa's stablecoin platform.
The economic model is OUSD's primary differentiator. In the traditional stablecoin model, the issuer captures nearly all reserve yield. Tether generated $5.2 billion in net profit in H1 2025 on reserve interest alone, with fewer than 100 employees. Circle generated $1.7 billion in revenue in 2024, sharing portions with distribution partners like Coinbase through negotiated arrangements.
OUSD inverts this structure:
The model borrows from platform economics. Stripe, Visa, and Mastercard already operate as multi-sided networks where value accrues at scale. OUSD applies this logic to stablecoin issuance: the more a partner distributes, the more revenue and equity it earns.
For context, at current U.S. Treasury yields of approximately 4.5%, $668 million in reserves generates roughly $30 million annually in interest. At $10 billion in circulation, that figure reaches $450 million. The revenue-sharing model becomes material only at scale.
The stablecoin market as of October 2026 stands at approximately $307 billion in total supply:
| Stablecoin | Market Cap | Market Share | |-----------|-----------|-------------| | USDT (Tether) | $184.0B | 59.9% | | USDC (Circle) | $74.2B | 24.2% | | PYUSD (PayPal) | $2.9B | 0.9% | | OUSD (Open Standard) | $0.67B | 0.2% | | Others | $45.2B | 14.8% |
OUSD's $668 million in circulation represents 0.2% of the market. Its competitive positioning targets USDC more directly than USDT. Tether dominates crypto trading venues and offshore markets. USDC dominates regulated, payment-adjacent use cases — precisely where OUSD's founding partners operate.
Circle's stock dropped 13% on OUSD's announcement. Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire responded by citing USDC's network effects and characterizing USDC as "the most trusted and widely adopted option." The response underscores the competitive threat: Coinbase, USDC's largest distribution partner, is now a founding partner of a competing stablecoin.
Coinbase earned an estimated $800 million in USDC-related revenue in 2025 through its distribution agreement with Circle. OUSD's equity and revenue-sharing structure could redirect those economics.
OUSD's launch caps a $2.9 billion spending spree by payment networks on stablecoin infrastructure:
| Acquirer | Target | Date | Price | |---------|--------|------|-------| | Stripe | Bridge | Feb 2025 | $1.1B | | Stripe | Privy | Jun 2025 | Undisclosed | | Mastercard | BVNK | Mar 2026 (closed Aug 2026) | $1.8B |
Stripe's Bridge ($1.1B, February 2025): Bridge, co-founded by Zach Abrams, provides infrastructure for businesses to issue, hold, and move stablecoins. Stripe CEO Patrick Collison described Bridge as the foundation for "a new generation of global, internet-native financial services." Bridge processes over $5 billion in annualized payment volume. Bridge now serves as OUSD's issuer.
Stripe's Privy (June 2025): Privy, a wallet infrastructure provider with 130 million deployed wallets and 2,000 customers, gives Stripe embedded wallet capabilities. Henri Stern, Privy's CEO, now oversees stablecoins and crypto across all of Stripe.
Mastercard's BVNK ($1.8B, March 2026): The largest stablecoin acquisition on record. BVNK processes $30 billion in annual transaction volume and provides on/off-ramp infrastructure connecting stablecoin rails to fiat banking networks. BVNK now serves as one of OUSD's three minting and redemption channels.
Visa's approach differs. Rather than acquiring stablecoin infrastructure, Visa built a stablecoin settlement program internally, reaching a $20 billion annualized run rate by September 2026. Visa operates more than 160 stablecoin-linked card programs, up 200% year-over-year.
OUSD's competitive thesis rests on distribution reach, not technical superiority. The combined infrastructure of its founding partners includes:
The GENIUS Act, which established the U.S. regulatory framework for payment stablecoins, is now in the rulemaking phase. The Federal Reserve issued two sets of implementing rules in September 2026 covering reserve assets, capital requirements, and the approval process for banks seeking to issue stablecoins. This regulatory clarity benefits OUSD: its reserve structure already conforms to GENIUS Act requirements, and its founding partners — as regulated financial institutions — face lower compliance friction than crypto-native issuers.
Stablecoin card spending hit $1.17 billion in September 2026, the third consecutive month above $1 billion, according to Paymentscan. Visa's stablecoin-linked card payment volume grew nearly 200% year-over-year. These rails are now available to OUSD from day one.
Governance complexity. Five equal equity holders with competing business interests must coordinate on product decisions, fee structures, and market expansion. Consortium governance has historically struggled with speed — the R3 Corda consortium and Libra/Diem are instructive precedents.
Coinbase's dual position. Coinbase is simultaneously a founding OUSD partner and USDC's largest distribution partner. How Coinbase manages this conflict — and whether it redirects USDC volume toward OUSD — will shape the competitive dynamics.
Initial supply gap. At $668 million, OUSD is 0.9% of USDC's size and 0.4% of USDT's. Network effects in stablecoins are strong: liquidity begets liquidity. DeFi protocols, exchanges, and trading desks require deep pools to adopt a new stablecoin as a base pair.
Revenue model at small scale. At current supply levels, OUSD generates approximately $30 million annually in reserve yield — split among five founding partners and 200+ ecosystem participants. The model requires significant supply growth before revenue-sharing becomes economically meaningful for partners.
Stripe's central role. Bridge — a Stripe subsidiary — is the sole issuer. While governance sits with Open Standard, Stripe controls the core infrastructure. This concentration of operational risk in one founding partner may create tension as OUSD scales.
Circle has not disclosed whether its existing revenue-sharing agreement with Coinbase contains exclusivity provisions. Any contractual constraints on Coinbase's ability to promote a competing stablecoin could delay OUSD's growth trajectory.
OUSD represents the payment industry's answer to a question that has defined the stablecoin market for five years: who captures the economics of digital dollar issuance. Tether and Circle built the market by keeping reserve yield. OUSD's founding partners — controlling the payment rails that move $20 trillion annually — are betting that distributing those economics will attract enough supply to shift the market structure.
The bet is large. Five competing companies agreed to equal equity, shared governance, and a single token. The infrastructure behind OUSD — Bridge for issuance, BVNK for Mastercard integration, Visa's stablecoin platform, Coinbase for exchange access — represents $2.9 billion in prior acquisitions now channeled toward a single product.
Whether OUSD grows from $668 million to $10 billion depends on execution: how quickly founding partners integrate OUSD into their existing flows, whether Coinbase begins routing USDC volume toward OUSD, and whether the consortium can govern effectively where previous multi-party stablecoin efforts — most notably Diem — failed.
The data shows a market in structural transition. Stablecoin card spending has tripled year-over-year. Visa processes $20 billion annually in stablecoin settlement. B2B stablecoin payments reached $226 billion in 2025. The infrastructure exists. The regulatory framework is being implemented. The remaining variable is which stablecoin captures the next wave of adoption — and OUSD is the first attempt by the incumbents of traditional finance to ensure it is theirs.