Open Standard announced plans to launch Open USD, a U.S. dollar stablecoin designed for the corporate sector, by the end of 2026. More than 140 companies backed the project at launch, including Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, Coinbase, BlackRock, Google, Shopify, and Ripple.
Open Standard introduced Open USD as a new stablecoin for cross-border payments and settlements. The initiative brings together companies from the payments, banking, technology, and cryptocurrency industries.
Open USD is positioned as an open stablecoin for businesses that aims to address key limitations of existing fiat-backed digital currencies. According to the developers, companies will be able to mint and redeem Open USD without fees or transaction volume limits. Revenue generated from the asset’s reserves will be distributed among ecosystem participants after a small operating fee is deducted.
According to Open Standard, the project is built around three core principles:
- Scalability. Token minting and redemption without fees or volume limits.
- Revenue sharing. Partners receive nearly all income generated by the reserve assets.
- Collective governance. An independent company, Open Standard, will oversee decision making through a board composed of partner representatives rather than a single owner.
Open USD is expected to launch by the end of 2026.
Open Standard Founder and CEO Zach Abrams said existing stablecoins offer a number of advantages. However, he argued that large enterprises need an open, low cost, high performance infrastructure whose incentives align with those of its users. He said Open USD was designed to provide exactly that.
The launch attracted participants from several industries. They included payment companies Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Stripe; financial institutions BlackRock, BNY, Standard Chartered, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, BBVA, U.S. Bank, and dozens of other banks; technology companies Google, IBM, Samsung Electronics, Shopify, Mercado Libre, and Cloudflare; as well as crypto industry participants Coinbase, Ripple, Solana, Base, Aptos Labs, Ledger, Fireblocks, Polygon, and MetaMask. In total, Open Standard said the project had secured support from more than 140 companies.
Several partners also issued public statements. BlackRock said Open USD expands business access to tokenized assets and digital financial products. BNY highlighted the project’s neutral governance model and shared economic structure. Coinbase described stablecoins as one of the most important areas of innovation in modern payments. Mastercard said stablecoin infrastructure should be open, interoperable, and accessible to a broad range of market participants.
Open Standard also cited a forecast projecting that the stablecoin market could reach $1.5 trillion by 2030. The company said it expects Open USD to become infrastructure for the next generation of global settlements. For reference, the global digital payments market could exceed $33.5 trillion by 2030.
