A consortium of more than 140 companies, including Visa, Mastercard, Coinbase, Google, Stripe, BlackRock, BNY, and DoorDash, announced a new dollar-pegged stablecoin called Open USD on Tuesday. The token will be issued by Open Standard, an independent company whose board is composed of its network partners, and is expected to go live later this year.
The launch targets a specific gap in the current stablecoin market. Open Standard founding CEO Zach Abrams said existing tokens serve important functions but create friction at scale.
"Existing stablecoins have great strengths, but to use them at scale, businesses need something that's open, low-cost, high-throughput, broadly accessible, and aligned to their interests," Abrams said. "We're thrilled to bring together over 140 businesses to launch Open USD. It's a stablecoin built for the internet economy, designed by the businesses growing it."
The network allows partners to mint and redeem Open USD without fees and without volume limits. Earnings from the reserves backing the stablecoin flow to partners after a management fee for operational costs. That structure gives participating businesses a direct economic stake in the network rather than simply access to it.
How the governance model differs from existing stablecoins
Open Standard's governance structure is one of the features that several partners cited when explaining their participation. The board is made up of network partners rather than a single controlling entity, which the company describes as designed to ensure decisions reflect collective interests.
BlackRock's Global Head of Market Development, Samara Cohen, said the combination of neutral governance and shared economics was unusual in the stablecoin market.
"A stablecoin with neutral governance and shared economics is a unique combination that has potential to unlock the next phase of digital assets growth," Cohen said.
BNY's Chief Product and Innovation Officer, Carolyn Weinberg, said the infrastructure question behind stablecoins is becoming more important than the technology itself.
"Stablecoins are a breakthrough technology, and realizing their potential requires a common framework for moving value across the digital economy. Open USD helps create that foundation," Weinberg said.
Visa's Chief Product and Strategy Officer, Jack Forestell, framed the company's participation in terms of the standards it applies to its existing global network.
"In payments, scale only comes with trust. As stablecoins evolve, the focus must shift from speed to reliability, governance, and interoperability. Visa is bringing the same discipline, risk standards, and operational rigor we apply to our global network to Open USD," Forestell said.
Stripe President of Technology and Business, Will Gaybrick, described Open USD as the default stablecoin for businesses on Stripe.
"Businesses need a stablecoin designed to work at global, industrial scale. And not at the scale of the 2026 economy, but of the 2040 economy, with flurries of activity we can only begin to imagine. That's why Open USD will be the default stablecoin for businesses running on Stripe," Gaybrick said.
The stablecoin market that Open USD enters
Stablecoins are digital tokens designed to hold a fixed value, typically pegged to the US dollar. Despite significant growth, their use remains concentrated in crypto trading rather than payments and business money movement, which is the gap Open Standard said it targets.
US President Donald Trump signed the GENIUS Act into law last year, establishing federal rules for stablecoins and providing a legal framework that supporters said could accelerate their use in everyday payments. Stablecoin supply has grown to approximately $320 billion, though it remains well below projections some forecasters had set for 2025.
Visa separately disclosed at its Payments Forum 2026 in June that its stablecoin settlement run rate had reached approximately $7 billion as of March 2026, with more than 160 stablecoin-linked card programs live or in development. The company said it was expanding stablecoin settlement pilots across regions and blockchains.
BNY anticipated the market's longer trajectory. Weinberg added that BNY anticipated stablecoins alone may grow to $1.5 trillion by 2030.
Partner quotes from across industries and geographies
DoorDash co-founder Andy Fang pointed to the company's US payout experience with Dashers as the basis for its interest in stablecoin infrastructure.
"In building payout products for Dashers and merchants in the U.S., we've seen firsthand how meaningful faster, more affordable access to earnings can be. Stablecoins give us a real path to bring that level of financial flexibility to other geographies we operate in. What sets Open USD apart is that it's genuinely open: no single company controls it, and the partners building on it have a seat at the table. That's the right foundation for moving money for everyone," Fang said.
Remittance company Felix CEO Manuel Godoy said the stablecoin's value for real-world use cases lies in its invisibility to the end user.
"The customer does not care what rail moves the money. They care that their family receives local currency quickly, reliably, and at a fair price," Godoy said. "That is where stablecoins become useful in the real world: not as a product itself we ask people to understand, but as infrastructure that makes money movement work better behind the scenes."
Fireblocks CEO Michael Shaulov described the launch as a signal of industry direction.
"Joining Open Standard is a natural extension of that role, and a real signal that the industry is consolidating around shared, regulated infrastructure rather than building it in silos," Shaulov said.
Where Open USD sits relative to earlier network attempts
Open Standard is not the first attempt at a shared stablecoin network. A group of fintech and crypto firms launched the Global Dollar Network in 2024 with a similar participation model. Open Standard enters that market with a broader coalition that includes the two largest global card networks, several of the world's largest banks, and major crypto infrastructure providers.
In Europe, a consortium of 10 banks including BNP Paribas, ING, and UniCredit formed Qivalis in January 2026 to launch a euro-pegged stablecoin in the second half of the year, pending regulatory approval. That token is intended to initially serve crypto trading before expanding to other uses.
Open USD will go live later in 2026. Open Standard said businesses interested in joining the network can apply directly.
Matvii Diadkov
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