Open USD launches with backing from Visa, Stripe, Coinbase and 140 partners

A coalition of more than 140 financial institutions, payment providers, technology firms, and crypto companies has unveiled Open USD. It is a new stablecoin designed to challenge traditional issuer-controlled models through shared governance and partner-owned economics.

The initiative brings together companies including Visa, Stripe, Mastercard, BlackRock, Coinbase, Bybit, Ripple, Shopify, Google, IBM, Standard Chartered, and MoneyGram. It wants to build what its backers describe as an open, scalable stablecoin infrastructure for global money movement.

Open USD targets a new model for stablecoins

Unlike conventional stablecoins operated by a single issuer, Open USD will be governed by Open Standard, an independent company whose board is made up of participating partners.

The project is built around three core principles: 

• fee-free minting and redemption at any scale 
• sharing reserve earnings with partners after a management fee
• collaborative governance designed to prevent any single company from controlling the network.

Open Standard said businesses continue to face challenges with existing stablecoins. The challenges include: high minting and redemption costs, limited access to reserve income, and dependence on third-party issuers’ product roadmaps.

Founding CEO Zach Abrams said the consortium was created to address those limitations.

“Existing stablecoins have great strengths, but to use them at scale, businesses need something that’s open, low-cost, high-throughput, broadly accessible, and aligned to their interests,” Abrams said.

Payments, banks, and crypto firms unite behind launch

The consortium spans multiple industries, including global payment networks, banks, fintech firms, crypto companies, and enterprise software providers.

Among the participants are Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Stripe, Adyen, Fiserv, BlackRock, BNY, Standard Chartered, DBS, U.S. Bank, Coinbase, Bybit, OKX, Ripple, Crypto.com, Fireblocks, MetaMask, Aave, Solana, Polygon, Stellar, Shopify, DoorDash, Google, and IBM.

Several partners outlined how they expect the network to support future payment infrastructure.

Stripe President of Technology and Business Will Gaybrick said Open USD would become the default stablecoin for businesses running on Stripe. While Visa Chief Product and Strategy Officer Jack Forestell said governance, interoperability, and trust would be essential as stablecoins become more deeply integrated into the global financial system.

The consortium said Open USD will go live later this year.

Final Summary

• More than 140 companies, including Visa, Stripe, BlackRock, Coinbase, and Mastercard, have joined Open USD, a new stablecoin governed by an independent consortium.
• Open USD will feature fee-free minting and redemption, shared reserve economics, and collaborative governance, with the network scheduled to launch later this year.