Consortium-backed Open USD raises stakes in stablecoin race

Open Standard revealed on June 30, 2026, it is preparing to launch a new stablecoin this year, positioning the initiative as a collaborative alternative to dominant issuers such as Tether and Circle in an increasingly competitive digital payments market.

The new token, called Open USD or OUSD, is backed by a consortium that includes more than 140 companies, among them Visa, Stripe, BlackRock and Coinbase. According to reports, the stablecoin is designed to distribute most reserve revenue generated by the assets backing the token to consortium participants rather than concentrating earnings with a single issuer.

The announcement comes as stablecoins continue moving deeper into mainstream finance following passage of the Genius Act in 2025, which established a regulatory framework for dollar-backed digital assets in the United States. The law accelerated interest from payments providers, retailers and financial institutions seeking to build blockchain-based payment and settlement tools.

Shared infrastructure takes center stage

"What this week's Open USD launch really means is that stablecoin infrastructure just stopped being a land grab and started being a shared utility," said Radi El Haj, CEO of RS2, a company focused on delivering next-generation payment processing infrastructure for banks and financial institutions worldwide.

El Haj said the project represents a shift away from the traditional stablecoin model, in which issuers maintain tight control over payment rails, reserve earnings and transaction economics. By sharing reserve yield among a large group of participants, Open USD is betting on broad adoption and transaction scale rather than exclusivity, he said.

Industry observers see the move as a direct challenge to established stablecoin leaders. Earlier this year, Tether's USDT accounted for roughly 62% of the stablecoin market, while Circle's USDC represented about 25%, according to crypto analytics reports cited in coverage of the launch.

Shared ownership brings new challenges

El Haj compared the Open USD consortium structure to cooperative financial infrastructure models such as SWIFT, arguing that major payments companies increasingly want shared ownership of the networks they rely on rather than dependence on a single crypto-native provider.

At the same time, he cautioned that collaborative governance could become more difficult as transaction volume and financial stakes increase. Questions surrounding reserve yield allocation, fee structures and settlement priorities could test the consortium as adoption grows.

El Haj also said processors are unlikely to commit to a single stablecoin network long term. Instead, he expects demand to grow for orchestration technology capable of routing transactions across multiple payment rails, including stablecoins, in real time.

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