Coinbase, Visa, Stripe and More Back New Open USD Stablecoin in Challenge to Circle and Tether

More than 140 companies, including Coinbase, Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, BlackRock, and BNY, have lined up behind a new dollar stablecoin called Open USD, in one of the broadest corporate alliances yet assembled around digital money.

Open Standard, the independent company building the token, announced the project on Tuesday. The release states that the stablecoin is set to go live later this year.

Open Standard is led by founding CEO Zach Abrams, co-founder of Bridge, the stablecoin startup acquired by Stripe for $1.1 billion in 2024. The company pitched Open USD as infrastructure for businesses rather than a consumer product, pointing to the high fees to mint and redeem most stablecoins, the reserve revenue that issuers keep for themselves, and developers’ limited say over third-party roadmaps.

To address those points, Open Standard said businesses will be able to mint and redeem Open USD at no cost and with no volume limits, and that partners will receive all of the earnings from the token’s reserves, less a small management fee. Governance will sit with a board made up of partners rather than a single issuer.

“Existing stablecoins have great strengths, but to use them at scale, businesses need something that’s open, low-cost, high-throughput, broadly accessible, and aligned to their interests,” Abrams said.

The model is a direct challenge to market leaders Circle and Tether, which typically retain the interest earned on their reserves. Circle shares fell about 13% on Tuesday, to around $66, their weakest level since late February.

Coinbase, which earns a share of USDC’s reserve revenue under its agreement with Circle, slipped about 4% even as it signed on to Open USD. Circle Chief Executive Jeremy Allaire played down the threat, saying the company welcomed “continued innovation and competition in the space.”

The partner roster spans payments, banking, fintech and crypto, from American Express, Klarna and Western Union to Google, Shopify, DoorDash, Solana and Ripple. Stripe said Open USD would become the default stablecoin for businesses running on its platform. Open Standard said many of the partners have signed up to use the token, though it did not detail how binding each commitment is, and it has yet to name a reserve custodian or the blockchains Open USD will run on.

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