Korean companies say they never formally agreed to join the OUSD alliance
According to The Block, Open Standard listed Samsung Electronics, Dunamu, the parent company of Upbit, and several other Korean companies as members of its OUSD stablecoin alliance. After the list became public, however, multiple companies said they had never formally agreed to participate, creating a clear gap between the alliance announcement and the companies’ own descriptions of prior discussions.
A Samsung Electronics representative told Korean media that the company had not received a formal consultation request and did not know what role it was supposed to play in the project. Shinhan Financial Group, Dunamu, and Kbank also said they had only replied that they would review the matter, but later found their names included on the member list. Another company reportedly said it had only responded casually that it might consider participating if things progressed smoothly, yet it too was added to the list, leaving it confused about how that happened.
Questions grow over how Open Standard validated alliance membership
Based on the information currently available, the central issue is not whether these companies had heard of the OUSD project, but rather what Open Standard considered sufficient confirmation for public inclusion as a member. The statements from the named firms suggest that no formal authorization, internal approval, or explicit commitment had been completed before their names were published as alliance participants.
That distinction matters because the companies involved are not minor market players. Samsung Electronics, Dunamu, Shinhan Financial Group, and Kbank all carry substantial weight in the Korean corporate and financial landscape. Once their names appear in a public alliance roster, the market can easily interpret that as institutional endorsement or active participation. As a result, the dispute has quickly shifted attention toward disclosure standards, member verification procedures, and the reliability of promotional claims tied to major digital asset initiatives.
Open Standard says the alliance includes more than 140 institutions and plans to launch OUSD this year
Earlier this week, Open Standard announced that its OUSD stablecoin alliance consisted of more than 140 institutions, including Visa, Mastercard, and BlackRock, and that it planned to launch OUSD within the year. The announcement appeared designed to signal broad cross-sector support spanning payments, finance, and corporate participation.
But after several Korean firms publicly denied that they had formally joined, scrutiny has intensified around the accuracy of the published member list, the actual depth of those relationships, and the transparency of future communications from the alliance. Based on the currently reported facts, two points are clear: Open Standard has made a high-profile push to present OUSD as backed by a wide institutional coalition, while some of the companies named in that coalition say they have not formally consented to be included.