Visa, Mastercard, Stripe and Coinbase consortium launches Open USD stablecoin

A consortium backed by Stripe and Visa issued a US dollar-pegged stablecoin on Wednesday, in what Bloomberg described as one of the most significant entries into the market to date¹. The issuer, Open Standard, launched Open USD on Ethereum, Solana, Base and Tempo, with the token issued by Stripe’s Bridge unit and Coinbase access starting later³. Open Standard is backed by Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, Coinbase and Shopify^7,10.

Stripe said OUSD on Tempo is now its default stablecoin configuration, and that businesses can use the token across its payments, treasury, payouts and card products⁵. Businesses can hold OUSD directly with Stripe Treasury, spend that balance with stablecoin cards and send OUSD to crypto wallets^4,9. PYMNTS framed the launch as an attempt to eliminate currency conversion fees⁴.

Why it matters to investors

The incumbents are large. Open USD is entering a stablecoin market worth more than $300 billion and still dominated by two players, with Tether’s USDT accounting for about $143 billion². CoinDesk reported that Open Standard is pursuing a different model, which it characterised as building money rather than simply issuing a token^2,10.

The structural difference is where the economics sit. BigGo reported that Open USD debuts with an equity-sharing model aimed squarely at challenging Tether⁷. For the card networks, the move puts them on the issuance side of a settlement rail that has until now routed around them, which is why Briefs expects stablecoin payments to start appearing at checkout and inside the treasury tools businesses already use⁸.

What to watch

Distribution is the first test rather than technology. The consortium’s advantage is the merchant and processor base it already owns, and TradingView noted that despite growing institutional interest, breaking the dominance of USDT and USDC remains a significant challenge⁶.

Three markers follow. The first is whether OUSD supply builds to a scale that registers against the incumbents, given Tether’s USDT alone accounts for about $143 billion of a market worth more than $300 billion². The second is the Coinbase leg, which was not live at launch and which widens retail reach when it opens³. The third is the rate backdrop: Bloomberg’s own coverage carried the Treasury 10-year yield hitting its highest level since 2002, and reserve income on short-dated government paper is the core of every large issuer’s revenue model^1,2. The Defiant noted that Stripe has already made the token its default configuration, so adoption inside its own stack is not in question⁵.