More than 100 companies, including Visa, BlackRock, Stripe, and Google, have joined the Open Standard coalition and said they plan to launch a dollar-backed stablecoin called Open USD (OUSD) in the second half of this year. According to the report, the token will charge no minting or redemption fees and will share most of the reserve yield with participating partners. After the news broke, Circle shares came under heavy pressure and at one point fell by more than 13%.
OUSD targets the economics behind incumbent stablecoins
The group spans payments, big tech, crypto, and traditional finance. Named participants include Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, Coinbase, BlackRock, BNY Mellon, and Alphabet. Based on the disclosed structure, OUSD will be led on an interim basis by Zach Abrams, co-founder of Bridge, a Stripe unit. The coalition is presenting the project as a neutrally governed, shared-ownership model, with reserve income distribution as the central incentive for adoption.
That stands in contrast to Circle’s current business model, which relies heavily on interest income generated by reserve assets such as U.S. Treasuries. Markets quickly read OUSD as a direct challenge to USDC, especially because the coalition already comes with built-in distribution across payments, financial services, and large platform ecosystems.
Jeremy Allaire says USDC remains the institutional standard
Circle co-founder and CEO Jeremy Allaire responded on X within hours. He did not name OUSD directly, but his message was aimed squarely at the growing concern. Allaire said USDC remains the most trusted, most widely adopted, and most mature institutional-grade stablecoin in the world. He added that Circle works with thousands of institutional partners across nearly every major sector, pointing to a compliance and trust framework built over a decade.
He also framed stablecoins as infrastructure for moving money across the global internet. The emphasis was clear. Circle is arguing that its position rests not only on token issuance, but also on regulatory work, settlement rails, network depth, and long-standing institutional relationships.
Circle signals a broader infrastructure response
Allaire’s post also outlined where Circle intends to push next. One track is deeper integration with global banks and capital markets, while making partners economic stakeholders in the growth of the USDC network. The other is product expansion across Arc, CCTP, StableFX, Circle Wallets, and CPN, with support for more dollar and non-dollar stablecoins.
That approach suggests Circle is preparing for a market where several major stablecoins may coexist. If new issuers gain traction, the company wants to remain embedded through the infrastructure layer rather than depend only on USDC issuance economics.
Investors split as buyback demands surface
Reaction across the market was mixed. Some community members backed Allaire’s stance and pointed to products such as Arc as potential growth drivers in emerging markets including Nigeria. Others focused on Circle’s stock performance since the start of 2026 and criticized insider selling at a time when competition is intensifying. In the replies, some investors called on management to launch share buybacks.
With the OUSD coalition now public, stablecoin competition is shifting toward a new set of questions: who keeps reserve yield, how partners share in the economics, and whether infrastructure is open enough to support multiple issuers. Circle is now defending USDC on all three fronts at once.