On June 30, 2026, the stablecoin alliance Open Standard officially announced the launch of Open USD, a new stablecoin addressing high minting costs, lack of reserve revenue sharing, and centralized governance in existing stablecoins. Led by founding CEO Zach Abrams, the alliance has attracted over 140 businesses across payments, banking, technology, and crypto.
Three Core Design Principles
Open USD is built on three key principles:
- Built for scale: Businesses can mint and redeem Open USD at no cost and with no artificial volume limits.
- Earn by default: Partners receive all earnings from Open USD's reserves, minus a small management fee for operational costs.
- Govern collaboratively: Open USD is operated by Open Standard, an independent company with a board composed of partners, ensuring decisions serve the collective interest.
The alliance noted that existing stablecoins, despite their strengths, impose prohibitive mint/redemption fees for large volumes, prevent partners from benefiting from reserve yields, and tie roadmaps to single issuers. Open USD solves these pain points to become a stablecoin 'built for the internet economy'.
Extensive Partner Network
Open Standard published a long list of initial partners spanning multiple sectors:
- Payments & Fintech: Visa, Stripe, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, Fiserv, Adyen, Klarna, Affirm, Ramp, OnePay, Brex, Checkout.com, WEX, PayPay Corporation, Western Union, Nuvei, Remitly, Ria, Marqeta, MoneyGram, Nium, Worldline, Galileo, Highnote, i2C, Lithic, Thredd, Episode Six, Verituity, and more.
- Banking & Asset Management: BlackRock, BNY, Standard Chartered, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, Intercontinental Exchange, National Australia Bank, DBS, U.S. Bank, BBVA, Mizuho Financial Group, Shinhan Financial Group, Westpac, Itaú, OCBC, ANZ, UOB, Chime, Banco Bradesco, Huntington Bank, Citizens Bank, KB Kookmin Card, Emirates NBD, Hanwha Group, Banorte, Bank Hapoalim, FNB South Africa, K Bank, SoFi, Woori Card, Absa, Kakao Bank, Samsung Card, Bank Leumi, Wenia by Grupo Cibest, Nedbank, Isbank, Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank ADIB, Banco de Crédito del Perú, Mashreq, RAK Bank, Hana Card, Hyundai Card, BCcard, Cross River, Grupo Aval, Davivienda, The Bancorp, Pathward, Banca Transilvania, Nonghyup Card, Neo Financial, Maya Bank, Netbank, Freedom Bank Kazakhstan, Lead Bank, Kapital, MAX, and many regional banks.
- Technology & E-commerce: Google, Samsung Electronics, IBM, Shopify, Mercado Libre, Mercado Pago, Infosys, DoorDash, Wix, Grab, Rakuten Group.
- Crypto & Blockchain: Coinbase, Tempo, Bybit, Solana, OKX, Ripple, Crypto.com, Fireblocks, Gemini, MetaMask, Aave, eToro, Galaxy, Dunamu, Ledger, MoonPay, Anchorage Digital, Digital Asset, Trust Wallet, Meow, Morpho, Ether.Fi, Lightspark, zerohash, Bitso, Bridge, Rain, BVNK, Mesh, Privy, Bitget Wallet, StraitsX, Yellow Card, Reap, Brale, RedotPay, Immersve, Stellar, Polygon, Aptos Labs, Plasma, KAST, Blossom, Lemon.
Executive Perspectives
Several partner executives shared their insights:
- BBVA Alicia Pertusa: 'Stablecoins fundamentally change how money moves—making transactions frictionless and available 24/7.'
- BlackRock Samara Cohen: 'Open USD is a constructive step toward giving businesses more choice in accessing tokenized value and participating in digital rails.'
- BNY Carolyn Weinberg: 'A stablecoin with neutral governance and shared economics can unlock next-phase digital assets growth. We anticipate stablecoins may grow to $1.5 trillion by 2030.'
- Chime Chris Britt: 'Stablecoins are a breakthrough technology; Open USD helps create the foundation for next-generation money movement.'
- Coinbase Shan Aggarwal: 'Stablecoins are the most important thing in payments right now; more infrastructure accelerates the gap between current payments and what they should be.'
- DoorDash Andy Fang: 'Stablecoins give us a path to bring financial flexibility to more geographies. Open USD's genuine openness is the right foundation.'
- Félix Manuel Godoy: 'Customers don't care about the rail; they care about fast, reliable local currency. Stablecoins as infrastructure behind the scenes is the right approach.'
- Fireblocks Michael Shaulov: 'Joining Open Standard signals consolidation around shared, regulated infrastructure rather than silos.'
- Mastercard Jorn Lambert: 'Technologies that changed the world succeeded as shared infrastructure; stablecoins should follow the same path—open, interoperable, broadly accessible.'
- Shopify Rohit Mishra: 'When the ecosystem builds together, stablecoins become more powerful for merchants. Open Standard helps shape a stronger foundation for choice and efficiency.'
- Stripe Will Gaybrick: 'Open USD will be the default stablecoin for Stripe businesses, designed for the 2040 economy.'
- Visa Jack Forestell: 'Scale comes with trust. Visa brings its discipline and risk standards to Open USD, building the trust layer for stablecoins in the broader financial system.'
Timeline and Outlook
Open USD is scheduled to go live in the second half of 2026. The Open Standard team invites more enterprises to join the alliance. With transactional volumes already approaching ACH network levels, Open USD aims to remove remaining barriers to mass adoption. Backed by the collective expertise of over 140 partners, Open USD could become the standard rail for global value movement in the internet economy.