Bridge launches OUSD stablecoin with $1B from five partners
DeFi & Yields ·
Stripe-owned Bridge introduced OpenUSD, a stablecoin issued under an "open standard," going live on Wednesday across Solana, Base, and Tempo.
The launch was backed by five founding partners — Coinbase, Mastercard, Shopify, Stripe, and Visa — which together committed $1 billion to back OUSD's liquidity. Each partner intends to put the stablecoin to use within its own business operations rather than treat it purely as a reserve asset.
The "open standard" framing distinguishes OUSD from single-issuer stablecoins: rather than one company controlling issuance and redemption, the model is built around a shared standard that multiple large financial and commerce firms adopt directly. Bridge, which Stripe acquired, is providing the infrastructure layer connecting issuance to the three blockchains chosen for deployment.
Coverage of the launch varies slightly on which chains are included. While the Bridge announcement and two other accounts describe the rollout as spanning Solana, Base, and Tempo, at least one account describes OUSD as live on Base, Ethereum, Solana, and Tempo, adding Ethereum to the list. The discrepancy has not been resolved across the available reporting, and it remains unclear whether Ethereum support was part of the original launch or a later addition not yet reflected in all accounts.
The participation of Coinbase, Mastercard, Shopify, and Visa alongside Stripe signals an attempt to embed a jointly backed stablecoin directly into payments, commerce, and card-network infrastructure rather than leaving adoption to decentralized-finance usage alone. The $1 billion liquidity commitment from the founding partners is intended to support OUSD's peg and availability as it moves across the three (or four, depending on the account) supported chains.
What remains unresolved includes the exact chain list for the launch, how redemption and reserve management will be structured among five separate corporate backers, and how usage will be divided or coordinated across Coinbase, Mastercard, Shopify, Stripe, and Visa's respective businesses. Also unclear is the timeline for broader availability beyond the initial blockchains and whether additional partners might join the open standard following the Wednesday launch.