BlockBeats reported on July 15 that CoinShares said Open USD, a stablecoin project backed by a banking-aligned consortium, could directly disrupt the distribution economics and profit margins of Circle’s USDC because it plans to share reserve income with participating partners rather than having that income kept mainly by the issuer.
CoinShares said that mechanism could raise the cost of maintaining USDC’s circulation network and, once Open USD goes live in the second half of 2026, create more meaningful competitive pressure on Circle.
CoinShares says key details are still undisclosed
CoinShares also said Open USD has not officially launched and that important details, including its reserve structure and fee model, have not yet been disclosed.
By comparison, USDC still has established strengths in liquidity, exchange access, and integration across decentralized finance and payment use cases. On that basis, CoinShares said Open USD can be viewed as a credible challenger to USDC for now, but its real impact remains to be tested.
Open Standard outlined three core design principles on July 1
On July 1, Open Standard announced Open USD (OUSD), describing it as a new stablecoin for global fund flows. It also said more than 140 companies had joined the ecosystem, spanning finance, payments, and crypto. The list included Visa, Stripe, Mastercard, American Express, BlackRock, BNY, DBS, Coinbase, OKX, MetaMask, Aave, Ripple, Fireblocks, Solana, and Polygon.
According to Open Standard, Open USD is built around three core principles:
- zero-cost, large-scale minting and redemption for enterprises;
- full return of reserve-asset income to partners after a small management fee is deducted;
- governance by an independent company, Open Standard, together with a board made up of partners, instead of control by a single issuer.