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About Open Standard
Open Standard is a consortium of over 140 companies, including Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, and BlackRock, that plans to issue a dollar-pegged stablecoin called OpenUSD (OUSD). Its core business is to provide an open, low-cost stablecoin infrastructure for large-scale payments and enterprise settlement. The key narrative is its revenue-sharing model: instead of the issuer keeping most reserve interest, returns are distributed to partners based on their transaction volume and holdings, after deducting a small management fee. This addresses the pain point that existing stablecoins like USDT and USDC are issuer-centric, with profits concentrated in Tether and Circle, while distribution partners gain little. OUSD also aims to solve high minting/redeeming costs for large transactions, offering fee-free issuance and redemption for B2B use. However, as of late August 2026, OUSD has not yet launched, with plans for a late-2026 release on networks like Solana, Stellar, Base, and Polygon. No reliable information is available on its development in the past six months (2026-02-28 to 2026-08-29), including any major negative events. The project is distinct from Origin Dollar (also OUSD), a DeFi yield stablecoin.
Open Standard, the issuer of the OUSD stablecoin, announced its formal launch on June 30, 2026, backed by a consortium of over 140 companies including Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, Coinbase, and BlackRock. The alliance aims to build a payment network where reserve yields are shared with distribution partners rather than retained solely by the issuer, directly challenging the business models of USDT and USDC.
A notable controversy emerged in early July 2026 when Korean firms including Samsung Electronics, Dunamu, and K Bank publicly denied formal participation in the alliance, stating they had only been approached for preliminary discussions or learned of their inclusion through media reports. This raised questions about the depth of the 140-member list and highlighted the gap between narrative and actual commitments.
Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire responded on July 1, 2026, arguing that stablecoins are a winner-takes-all business and citing data showing USDC processed nearly 80% of on-chain dollar stablecoin volume in Q1 2026. He contended that zero-fee and revenue-sharing models could limit long-term infrastructure investment, while acknowledging the competitive pressure that caused Circle's stock to drop approximately 16% on the announcement day.
OUSD is scheduled to launch in the second half of 2026, initially deploying on Solana, Polygon, Stellar, and Base. The project is driven approximately 60% by Bridge, the stablecoin payment infrastructure company acquired by Stripe for $1.1 billion in February 2025, which obtained a conditional national trust bank license from the OCC in February 2026. This positions OUSD to leverage Stripe's merchant network to expand stablecoin adoption into traditional enterprise payment scenarios.
In the past half year, the key milestone was Open Standard's official launch of Open USD (OUSD) on June 30, 2026, positioning it as open infrastructure for global money movement. Core progress: zero-fee minting/redemption with no volume caps; most reserve yield returned to participating businesses after a small management fee; and governance by an independent company with a partner-led board. Over 140 businesses have joined. Solana and Tempo confirmed native issuance from day one, with additional chains such as Polygon, Stellar, and Aptos expected later. Official roadmap shows OUSD going live later in 2026, focusing on reserve management, governance rules, and cross-chain distribution for payments, settlement, DeFi, and agentic commerce.
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Zach Abrams (Founding CEO)
Co-founder and CEO of Bridge, acquired by Stripe in 2024 for $1.1B. Previously founded Evenly (acquired by Square), led consumer product at Coinbase, and held roles at Square, Littlejohn & Co, and Wachovia Securities. He is the founding CEO of Open Standard, the consortium behind the Open USD stablecoin, backed by Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, BlackRock and 140+ firms.