On June 30, 2026, the cryptocurrency and traditional finance worlds were hit by a bombshell. Open USD (abbreviated as OUSD), a new stablecoin led by the Open Standard team and jointly endorsed by major financial and tech giants, officially made its debut.
This new star, positioned as the "stablecoin for global capital flows," is scheduled for official issuance by the end of 2026. Its unique "profit-sharing mechanism" and powerful "ally lineup" signal that the stablecoin market, long dominated by Tether (USDT) and Circle (USDC), is about to undergo an unprecedented reshuffle.
⚠️ Important Clarification: This OUSD Is Not That OUSD!
Before diving deeper, investors should take special note: This newly launched Open USD (OUSD) by the Open Standard team is completely different from the yield-bearing stablecoin Origin Dollar (OUSD) introduced by Origin Protocol in 2020.
Although both share the same token ticker, Open USD is an entirely independent new infrastructure project driven by a vast alliance of the world's top financial, payment, and technology giants.
Currently, the stablecoin market is almost monopolized by the duopoly of Tether (USDT) and Circle (USDC). However, the business model of these two issuers is essentially "centralized harvesting" — they deposit user funds into reserve assets such as Treasuries and keep all the substantial interest generated (reserve yields) for themselves.
Open USD arrives with three revolutionary principles, aiming to completely overturn this unequal playing field:
Costless Transactions
Corporate and institutional clients incur zero fees when minting and redeeming Open USD, with no transaction volume limits. This will significantly reduce costs for large institutions in cross-border commerce and large-scale fund transfers.
Reserve Revenue Sharing
This is Open USD's most disruptive feature. Unlike traditional issuers that pocket all interest, Open USD, after deducting minimal management fees, distributes the vast majority of reserve asset interest yields directly to its ecosystem Adoption Partners. This allows enterprises that promote and use OUSD to collectively share this massive financial pie.
Distributed Governance
The project is not owned by any single issuing entity but is governed by a council composed of representatives from founding partners. This organizational structure resembles the early operations of Visa or Mastercard, ensuring fairness, compliance, and decentralization in governance.
What the market finds most awe-inspiring about Open USD is its massive backing. The project is led by Zach Abrams, current CEO of Stripe's payment platform Bridge, serving as Founding CEO, and has received strong support from over 140 (some reports indicate up to 200) top-tier global partners.
Its ecosystem partners span four key sectors:
💳 Payment and Network Giants: Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, Stripe, Adyen, Fiserv
🏦 Banks and Traditional Finance: BlackRock, BNY, Standard Chartered, DBS, BBVA, U.S. Bank
💻 Tech and Retail Titans: Google, Samsung Electronics, IBM, Shopify
🌐 Cryptocurrency Infrastructure: Coinbase, Solana, Fireblocks, Aave, Gemini, Morpho
To ensure high throughput, extremely low transaction costs, and strong ecosystem usability, Open USD has been meticulously planned for on-chain deployment:
Solana: As a representative high-concurrency, low-latency public chain, Solana will provide native support for Open USD from Day One of issuance.
Base (B20 Standard): Open USD also plans to launch on Coinbase-supported Layer 2 network Base. Notably, it will adopt the "B20" token standard. This design aims to provide lower-cost compliance tools and, in the future, enable "gas fee sponsorship" (users can pay network fees directly with OUSD) and "virtual accounts" — features highly friendly to enterprises and large-scale payments.
Open USD's high-profile announcement instantly sent shockwaves through the capital markets.
The most severely impacted is the existing compliant stablecoin giant Circle. On the day of the announcement, June 30, 2026, Circle's parent company stock ($CRCL) plunged 12% to 18%.
Market concerns are not unfounded. Coinbase (Circle's co-founder) and Visa — long-standing core partners that Circle has relied on — simultaneously appeared on Open USD's founding partner list. This "fire in the backyard" channel and ecosystem competition poses a direct structural threat to Circle.
Minting and Redemption Costs
Traditional Compliant Stablecoins (e.g., USDC): Typically charge fees or impose limits.
Open USD (OUSD): Completely free with no limits whatsoever.
Reserve Interest Yields
Traditional Compliant Stablecoins (e.g., USDC): Exclusively retained by the issuer (e.g., Circle/Tether).
Open USD (OUSD): Almost entirely distributed to ecosystem partners after deducting minimal management fees.
Governance Model
Traditional Compliant Stablecoins (e.g., USDC): Single company-led (highly centralized).
Open USD (OUSD): Distributed council governance (Visa-style structure).
Distribution Channels
Traditional Compliant Stablecoins (e.g., USDC): Rely on market adoption and exchange partnerships.
Open USD (OUSD): Comes with a built-in network of 140+ global top-tier financial and payment giants.
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Although Open USD was born with a halo, analysts point out it still faces the stablecoin's inherent "cold-start problem" — how to quickly build sufficient liquidity pools and deep market trust in the early stages. However, with its unprecedented channel coverage and "profit-sharing" concession model, Open USD is highly likely to rewrite the economic structure of the stablecoin market in a very short time.
The launch of Open USD (OUSD) marks a "watershed" in the history of stablecoin development. It is no longer merely a medium of exchange in the cryptocurrency world but a "new global cross-border capital clearing infrastructure" jointly built by traditional financial and payment giants.
Through the two killer features of "zero fees" and "profit sharing," Open USD is launching the most aggressive challenge yet to the existing stablecoin landscape. Its official issuance at the end of 2026 will undoubtedly become the most anticipated milestone event in the Web3 and fintech sectors this year.