TL;DR
Get hardware and tech essentials delivered free — and shop member deals
- Fast, free delivery on millions of items
- Access to Prime Big Deal Days deals on October 6–7
- Prime Video, Amazon Music and more included
Open USD (OUSD), issued by Open Standard, launched Wednesday on Ethereum, Solana, Base and Tempo. The company says it will reward partners for growing OUSD supply and transaction activity, and plans to distribute most of its equity to contributors over four to five years. The size of the founding partners’ investments and stakes has not been disclosed.
Open Standard launched its Open USD (OUSD) stablecoin Wednesday on Ethereum, Solana, Base and Tempo, entering a market led by Tether and Circle with a model that ties partner rewards and planned equity distribution to the token’s growth and use. CEO Zach Abrams told CoinDesk that Coinbase, Mastercard, Shopify, Stripe and Visa are the company’s initial founding partners and investors, each with an equal initial equity stake.
Open Standard says OUSD is intended for payments, banking, settlement and institutional trading, rather than serving only as another digital dollar. Abrams said the five founding companies have committed more than $1 billion to establish OUSD liquidity over the coming months. The company has not disclosed the amount invested by each partner or the size of their individual equity stakes.
Abrams said Open Standard plans to distribute the overwhelming majority of its equity over the next four to five years to founders and other partners, based on contributions to OUSD supply and transaction activity. He said partners that meet a minimum threshold could earn equity under a framework combining those measures. The report does not specify the threshold or how the measures will be weighted.
The company’s wider network has grown from more than 140 companies when Open Standard first emerged in June to more than 200, according to Abrams. UBS, Japan’s SBI Holdings and fintech company Jeeves are among the latest additions. Open Standard says its management will run the company; the larger partner network is not intended to make decisions as a committee.
OUSD is entering a stablecoin market worth more than $300 billion, with Tether’s USDT and Circle’s USDC the largest established tokens. The report puts USDT circulation at about $143 billion and USDC at roughly $74 billion. Open Standard’s challenge is not simply to launch a dollar token, but to persuade businesses to distribute it, hold it and use it in transactions.
The proposed partner incentives could give payment networks, exchanges, banks and other companies a direct stake in expanding OUSD’s supply and activity. If implemented as described, that would distribute some of the potential value of growth beyond the issuer. But the launch announcement does not establish whether the model will attract meaningful usage or how much equity partners will ultimately receive.
That distinction matters because stablecoin issuers can earn income from the cash and securities backing their tokens, while distribution partners can help determine where customers encounter and use them. Open Standard’s approach places distribution, liquidity and activity at the center of its pitch. Its eventual competitiveness will depend on adoption and execution, not the number of companies named in its network alone.
As an affiliate, we earn on qualifying purchases.
From June Partner Network to Launch
Open Standard was first announced in June with more than 140 partners across payments, banking, crypto and technology, including BlackRock, BNY and Standard Chartered. The announcement drew attention because major companies associated with USDC, including Coinbase, Visa and Mastercard, were also linked to the new effort. Some analysts questioned what the partnerships meant in practice and whether a network spanning competing firms could make decisions effectively.
Abrams told CoinDesk that Open Standard is not a consortium governed by hundreds of partners. The five founding partners hold the initial ownership role, and the company expects that group could eventually grow to about 10 to 12 companies. The company also plans to establish a board made up of founders. Other partners would be aligned through rewards tied to their contributions, rather than by participating in a large committee.
Abrams previously co-founded and led stablecoin infrastructure company Bridge, which Stripe acquired for $1.1 billion in 2024, according to the report. Open USD was first unveiled in June and has now gone live on four networks, including Coinbase’s Base and Stripe-backed Tempo.
“We want to be the most useful stablecoin, the same way the U.S. dollar is useful. Every other stablecoin is building a fund. We’re building money.”
— Zach Abrams, Open Standard CEO, speaking to CoinDesk
As an affiliate, we earn on qualifying purchases.
The Terms Behind Partner Rewards
Several details needed to evaluate the model are not yet public. Open Standard has not disclosed the individual investment amounts or equity stakes of the five founding partners, the minimum activity threshold for earning equity, or the formula used to weigh supply against transactions. The report also does not set out the legal or operational terms of the planned equity distribution.
The commitment of more than $1 billion for OUSD liquidity is described by Abrams as a commitment from the founding partners, but the report does not detail how much has already been deployed, when funds will be placed, or how liquidity will be divided among the four blockchains. It is also unclear how the company will manage governance as the founding group grows, or what role the broader partner network will have beyond earning rewards.
Open Standard’s stated ambitions are not evidence of adoption. The launch report provides no OUSD circulation figure, transaction-volume data or timeline for reaching specific usage targets. It remains uncertain how quickly customers and businesses will use the token and how it will compete with established stablecoins.
As an affiliate, we earn on qualifying purchases.
Liquidity and Usage After Launch
The immediate milestones are the planned deployment of liquidity and the integration of OUSD into partner products and services. The founding companies have committed more than $1 billion to establish liquidity over the coming months, but Open Standard has not provided a detailed schedule in the reported announcement.
Readers will be able to judge progress through disclosures on circulation, transaction activity, network support and the equity framework. The company also expects its founding group to expand from five partners to roughly 10 to 12 and plans to form a board of directors made up of founders. No timetable for either step was reported.
For now, the launch establishes OUSD’s availability on four blockchains and outlines how Open Standard says it will reward participation. Whether that structure translates into sustained demand remains to be seen. Stablecoins carry operational, regulatory and market risks; this report describes the project and does not recommend buying or using any particular asset.
As an affiliate, we earn on qualifying purchases.
Key Questions
What is Open USD?
Open USD (OUSD) is a dollar stablecoin issued by Open Standard. It launched on Ethereum, Solana, Base and Tempo, with stated intended uses including payments, banking, settlement and institutional trading.
Who are Open Standard’s founding partners?
The first five founding partners and investors are Coinbase, Mastercard, Shopify, Stripe and Visa. Each has an equal initial equity stake, according to CEO Zach Abrams, though the company has not disclosed the stake sizes or individual investment amounts.
How does Open Standard say partners can earn equity?
Abrams said Open Standard plans to distribute most of its equity over four to five years based on contributions to OUSD supply and transaction activity. The detailed formula and minimum eligibility threshold have not been disclosed.
How large is the stablecoin market Open USD is entering?
The market was described in the report as worth more than $300 billion. Tether’s USDT was reported at about $143 billion in circulation and Circle’s USDC at roughly $74 billion. These figures are the report’s stated estimates, not a measure of OUSD adoption.
Is Open USD already widely used?
The report confirms that OUSD launched on four blockchains, but gives no circulation or transaction-volume figures. Its level of adoption and the timing of partner integrations remain unclear.
Source: rss
Fall Picks
fall essentials
As an affiliate, we earn on qualifying purchases.
