Aiming for leadership: Payment giants prepare a new stablecoin

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Who is behind Open USD

According to Reuters, the Open Standard project brings together more than 140 companies from the payments, banking, technology and crypto sectors. Participants in the project reportedly include Visa, Mastercard, Coinbase, Stripe, BlackRock and other major players that want to test a new model of a dollar stablecoin for businesses.

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The consortium’s main product is expected to be Open USD, or OUSD. It is a token pegged to the U.S. dollar, with its launch scheduled for the second half of 2026. Under Open Standard’s plan, companies will be able to mint and redeem OUSD with no fees or volume limits. This approach is designed to make the token useful not only for crypto exchanges, but also for payment companies, fintech platforms and corporations that need fast settlements in digital form.

Another feature of the project is its model for distributing reserve income. Unlike Tether and Circle, which largely keep the income from investing reserve assets for themselves, Open Standard promises to share part of that income with network partners after deducting a small operating fee. This gives consortium participants a direct economic interest in the development of OUSD, while the project itself is trying to bet not only on technology, but also on the commercial motivation of its partners.

Why large companies are looking at stablecoins

Interest in Open USD did not emerge out of nowhere. Stablecoins have long moved beyond crypto exchanges: they are increasingly used for payments, cross-border transfers and settlements between companies. According to Visa, stablecoin transaction volume reached a record $1.79 trillion in June, up 63% from the previous month and 125% higher than a year earlier.

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For the traditional payments market, this is no longer just a crypto experiment, but a fast-growing flow of money that cannot be ignored. The more such transactions take place, the stronger the interest from banks, fintech companies and card networks in new settlement infrastructure becomes.

Payment market leaders Visa and Mastercard are not approaching this topic from scratch. Both companies have previously explored ways to use stablecoins for settlements, card programs and international transfers. Visa has already developed pilot projects for stablecoin settlements and expanded such experiments across different blockchains and currencies, while Mastercard has tested infrastructure for working with digital assets. That is why their participation in Open Standard looks like a continuation of an existing strategy.

Why the project is raising questions

Despite the high-profile list of participants, skepticism around the Open USD initiative emerged almost immediately. Some South Korean companies that were listed as consortium participants said they had not given formal consent to join the project.

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According to Chosun Biz, a Samsung Electronics representative said there had been no official consultations with the company and that it did not understand what role it was supposed to play in the initiative. Dunamu, Shinhan Financial Group and Kbank also said that Open Standard had merely asked whether they would be willing to consider participation, but that this did not amount to final approval. A representative of one unnamed company admitted that it was surprised to see its organization included in the participant list after giving only an informal response that it might consider the project in the future.

The market reaction was also nervous. Shares of Circle, the issuer of USDC, fell sharply after the announcement of Open USD, as investors saw the new project as a potential competitor. However, Bernstein analysts believe the launch of OUSD confirms the growing importance of stablecoins as a separate market rather than directly threatening Circle’s position. In their view, USDC’s strengths remain its liquidity, regulatory base and already established network of partnerships.

What will happen to Open USD

Open USD is entering the market at a time when stablecoins are becoming too large a segment for traditional financial companies to ignore. For Visa, Mastercard, Coinbase, Stripe and other participants, this is an opportunity to secure an early position in infrastructure that could become an important part of global settlements. But big names will not be enough: the project will have to prove that businesses are actually ready to use OUSD in real payments rather than simply appear on a partner list.

The main question now is whether the consortium model can compete with the market’s established leaders. USDT retains the largest market capitalization, USDC is strengthening its position through regulation and transaction activity, and Open USD still has to win the trust of users and companies. If Open Standard manages to turn partner support into real transaction volume, OUSD could become a new growth center for the market. If not, the project risks remaining a loud but limited attempt to create competition in the stablecoin segment.

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