Open Standard Unveils Open USD, a Bank- and Tech-Backed Stablecoin Governed by Its Users

A consortium of more than 140 financial and technology companies introduced Open USD on Tuesday, a dollar stablecoin whose reserve earnings and governance are designed to flow to the businesses that adopt it rather than to a single issuer.

The token, ticker OUSD, will be operated by Open Standard, an independent company whose board is composed of the stablecoin's partners. Backers named in the launch include Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, BlackRock, BNY, Standard Chartered, Coinbase, Ripple, Google and Shopify. Zach Abrams will serve as Open Standard's founding CEO.

Shared Economics

Open USD's pitch to corporate adopters rests on three stated design principles: businesses can mint and redeem the token at no cost and with no volume caps; partners receive nearly all of the earnings generated on the token's reserves, after a management fee; and the asset is governed collectively rather than by one company.

That structure inverts the incumbent model, in which the issuer keeps the float income. "Nearly all reserve economics" are shared with companies that grow adoption, the project says.

Undisclosed Reserves

Open Standard says OUSD's reserves will be maintained at major financial institutions in compliance with US regulatory requirements. The issuer has not itemized the reserve composition beyond that framing, and the specific custodians, attestation cadence and regulated entity behind issuance remain undisclosed ahead of launch.

The token will launch natively on Solana from the first day, the blockchain's official account said. Open Standard has not detailed which additional chains will support OUSD at launch.

Incumbents Left Out

Circle, Tether and PayPal, the three largest dollar-stablecoin issuers, are not among the venture's partners.

The launch lands as the issuer field widens. Ripple recently rolled out RLUSD in Japan as Circle and Nomura joined the stablecoin race. Open Standard has set no firm launch date beyond 2026.