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Stripe, Visa and BlackRock Back New Open USD Stablecoin Launch
03 Sep 2026, 04:30
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Open Standard is launching Open USD (OUSD) with backing from Stripe, Visa, BlackRock and more than 140 other businesses, adding a major new competitor to Tether and Circle.
<p>Open Standard announced the launch of Open USD, a new stablecoin backed by an unusually broad coalition of more than 140 businesses including Stripe, Visa, and BlackRock, positioning the token as a direct competitor to established players Tether and Circle in the rapidly growing stablecoin market. The scale of corporate backing behind the launch is notable even by the standards of a stablecoin sector that has seen a wave of new entrants over the past year.</p>
<p>Open USD is the latest addition to a flood of new stablecoins that have launched since July 2025, when President Trump signed the GENIUS Act into law, establishing a formal regulatory framework for dollar-backed stablecoins in the United States. That legislation removed significant regulatory uncertainty that had previously discouraged large, established financial and payments companies from launching their own stablecoin products, opening the door for exactly the kind of broad corporate coalition backing Open USD.</p>
<p>The involvement of Stripe and Visa gives Open USD immediate access to extensive existing payment processing infrastructure and merchant relationships, potentially allowing the stablecoin to achieve real-world transaction volume more quickly than competitors that need to build merchant acceptance from scratch. BlackRock's participation adds significant institutional credibility and suggests the asset manager sees strategic value in stablecoin infrastructure beyond its existing crypto ETF business.</p>
<p>Open USD's launch adds to an increasingly crowded stablecoin field that already includes Tether's USDT, Circle's USDC, and a separate planned stablecoin from Goldman Sachs, Citi, Bank of America, and roughly 18 other global banks targeting a launch in the first half of 2027. The proliferation of competing stablecoins backed by different coalitions of traditional finance and payments companies suggests the market may be heading toward significant fragmentation, even as total stablecoin transaction volume continues climbing to new records.</p>
<p>For merchants and consumers, more stablecoin options could mean increased competition on transaction fees and settlement speed, though it also raises questions about interoperability between competing tokens backed by different corporate coalitions. How Open USD's broad backing translates into actual adoption and transaction volume, relative to USDC's current dominant position and USDT's continued global usage, will likely become clearer as the stablecoin market continues its rapid 2026 expansion.</p>
<p>Open USD is the latest addition to a flood of new stablecoins that have launched since July 2025, when President Trump signed the GENIUS Act into law, establishing a formal regulatory framework for dollar-backed stablecoins in the United States. That legislation removed significant regulatory uncertainty that had previously discouraged large, established financial and payments companies from launching their own stablecoin products, opening the door for exactly the kind of broad corporate coalition backing Open USD.</p>
<p>The involvement of Stripe and Visa gives Open USD immediate access to extensive existing payment processing infrastructure and merchant relationships, potentially allowing the stablecoin to achieve real-world transaction volume more quickly than competitors that need to build merchant acceptance from scratch. BlackRock's participation adds significant institutional credibility and suggests the asset manager sees strategic value in stablecoin infrastructure beyond its existing crypto ETF business.</p>
<p>Open USD's launch adds to an increasingly crowded stablecoin field that already includes Tether's USDT, Circle's USDC, and a separate planned stablecoin from Goldman Sachs, Citi, Bank of America, and roughly 18 other global banks targeting a launch in the first half of 2027. The proliferation of competing stablecoins backed by different coalitions of traditional finance and payments companies suggests the market may be heading toward significant fragmentation, even as total stablecoin transaction volume continues climbing to new records.</p>
<p>For merchants and consumers, more stablecoin options could mean increased competition on transaction fees and settlement speed, though it also raises questions about interoperability between competing tokens backed by different corporate coalitions. How Open USD's broad backing translates into actual adoption and transaction volume, relative to USDC's current dominant position and USDT's continued global usage, will likely become clearer as the stablecoin market continues its rapid 2026 expansion.</p>