What is OpenUSD (OUSD)? Visa, BlackRock, Coinbase, and 140+ Firms Fuel Buzz Around New Stablecoin

Backed by over 140 companies, Open USD promises zero-fee minting, collaborative governance, and reserve yield sharing ahead of its launch.

Open USD (OUSD) stablecoin has emerged as one of the crypto market’s biggest trending topics after the project drew attention with the announcement of a consortium-backed stablecoin initiative involving more than 140 companies.

Developed by Open Standard, the stablecoin is expected to go live later this year.

Open USD Frenzy

According to the latest findings by Santiment, the scale of participation from major financial and crypto firms has fueled massive discussion across the market. The initiative has attracted some of the biggest names in the industry, making it one of the most talked-about developments in addition to discussions surrounding ANSEM whale activity and Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) licensing.

“The crowd is also debating custody, transparency, liquidity, and whether another major stablecoin can truly compete with USDC and USDT. Either way, the spike in attention shows the market is taking this launch seriously.”

The growing interest follows the official unveiling of OUSD by Open Standard, an independent organization that will oversee the stablecoin. According to the official blog post, Open USD is designed to support global money movement while addressing several issues businesses face when using existing stablecoins.

While stablecoins have become increasingly important because they offer faster, lower-cost, and programmable digital payments, Open Standard said that many businesses still face high minting and redemption fees, limited access to revenue generated by reserve assets, and dependence on third-party issuers for future development.

To address these concerns, OUSD has been built around three core principles. First, businesses will be able to mint and redeem the stablecoin without paying fees or facing volume restrictions. Second, participating partners will receive the earnings generated from the stablecoin’s reserves after a small management fee is deducted to cover operational costs. Third, governance will be handled collectively through Open Standard, whose board will consist of partner organizations rather than a single controlling issuer.

Open Standard said this structure is intended to ensure decisions are made in the interests of the broader ecosystem. The organization also confirmed that more than 140 businesses have already signed up to support or use Open USD, including companies such as Visa, Stripe, Mastercard, American Express, Coinbase, BlackRock, BNY, Standard Chartered, Intercontinental Exchange, Bybit, Solana, Base, OKX, and Ripple.

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Commenting on the development, BlackRock’s Global Head of Market Development, Samara Cohen, said,

“We believe stablecoins can play an important role in the evolution of digital markets when supported by trusted infrastructure and practical utility. Open USD is a constructive step toward giving businesses more choice in how they access tokenized value and participate in internet native digital rail.”

Bearish For Circle?

The announcement of OUSD also appeared to weigh on investor sentiment surrounding the USDC issuer, Circle. On Tuesday, CRCL shares fell 17.55% and closed at $62.63.

Former Enterprise Research Analyst at Messari, Sam Ruskin, tweeted that the new stablecoin’s model could pose a competitive challenge to USDC because of its three core design principles. He believes that OUSD’s new model could pressure Circle to expand revenue-sharing agreements, find new distribution partners, or focus on other parts of its stablecoin business.