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140-Company Consortium Unveils Open USD

A 140-company consortium wants to disrupt Circle and Tether’s money printing machine.

Open Standard, a group of more than 140 financial and technology firms whose backers include Visa, Mastercard, BlackRock, and Coinbase, unveiled Open USD, a partner-governed stablecoin whose reserve earnings and governance go to the businesses that adopt it, spreading economics a lone issuer normally keeps. OUSD is slated to launch later in 2026.

The design targets the exact reason banks and fintechs have hesitated to push existing stablecoins: adopting one hands the float and the customer relationship to a competitor. By pooling issuance and returning the yield to distributors, the consortium is betting that shared economics pull adoption that a single issuer's brand cannot. Whether 140 members can agree on governance is a harder test.

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WATCH

Why Wall Street's Biggest Traders Are Abandoning Crypto for Prediction Markets

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TRADFI AND FINTECH

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

Open Standard, a consortium of more than 140 financial and technology companies, introduced Open USD, a dollar stablecoin governed by its users. Reserve earnings and governance go to the businesses that adopt OUSD, spreading economics a single issuer normally captures; backers include Visa, Mastercard, BlackRock, and Coinbase. The token is slated to launch later in 2026.

Why this matters: A distributor-owned stablecoin attacks the float economics that built Tether and Circle. If adopters keep the yield, the incentive to switch is baked in.

TRADFI AND FINTECH

Securitize Shareholders Approve Merger, Paving Way for First Publicly Traded Tokenization Company

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DEFI

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DEFI

Machi Big Brother's Hyperliquid Losses Top $80M as He Sells Bored Apes for Margin

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Why this matters: Public onchain liquidations are becoming crypto's spectator sport. The transparency that makes Hyperliquid legible also turns one trader's ruin into a live feed.

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