Open Standard has unveiled Open USD, a new stablecoin backed at launch by more than 140 companies, including Visa, Stripe, Mastercard, BlackRock and Coinbase. Its main pitch is not simply issuance. The project says most income generated from reserve assets will be distributed to participating businesses after a small management fee. According to the project website, Open USD is expected to go live later this year.
Reserve income is the core commercial pitch
Open Standard said businesses will be able to mint and redeem Open USD with no fees and no volume limits. In many existing stablecoin models, the issuer keeps most of the yield earned on Treasury bills or cash equivalents backing the token. Open USD is set up to send a large share of that income back to the companies helping distribute and use the asset, including merchants, payment platforms, exchanges and fintech firms. That shifts attention to a basic question in stablecoins: who captures the economics of the reserves.
Shared governance instead of a single issuer
The project is also structured differently from the usual single-issuer setup. Open USD will be managed by an independent organization, with governance shared across partner companies rather than controlled by one entity. Open Standard said member companies are expected to use Open USD as a core payment asset inside their products and services. They will also get technical and integration support and earn revenue tied to adoption. The design is meant for companies that may compete with each other, but still want common payment rails.
Launch members span payments, banking, tech and crypto
The disclosed launch group covers several sectors. Payment networks include Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover. Financial institutions include BlackRock, BNY and Standard Chartered. Technology companies include Google, Shopify and IBM. Crypto firms in the group include Coinbase, Bybit, OKX, MetaMask, Ripple and Galaxy. Visa head of crypto Cuy Sheffield called Open USD “a shared stablecoin designed for the global financial system.” Mastercard Chief Product Officer Jorn Lambert said shared, interoperable infrastructure is key to bringing stablecoins into the broader financial system. Stripe President of Technology and Business Will Gaybrick said Open USD is intended to become the default stablecoin for businesses using Stripe.
Tempo will handle native issuance at launch
Tempo CEO Matt Huang said Open USD will be natively issued on the Tempo network from day one, with support for payments, liquidity, exchanges and decentralized finance. Open Standard has not said whether Tempo will be the exclusive network for native issuance at launch. That detail matters. For a stablecoin aimed at payments, transaction costs, settlement speed, liquidity and integrations with wallets, merchants, exchanges and financial institutions all shape how useful it becomes in practice.
Execution will matter more than the member list
Open USD is trying to change more than token supply. It is targeting the commercial split around distribution, reserve income, governance rights and payment integration. The involvement of major payment networks and technology firms gives the project weight, but the harder questions remain operational: whether liquidity can scale, whether redemptions stay reliable, whether compliance standards remain clear, and how efficiently a shared governance structure can make decisions. The launch roster is large. Actual transaction volume will be the real test.