OpenUSD stablecoin launches with $1B in backing from five payment giants
DeFi & Yields ·
A new dollar-pegged stablecoin called OpenUSD went live this week across three blockchains, backed by $1B in committed liquidity from Coinbase, Mastercard, Shopify, Stripe, and Visa.
OpenUSD, also referred to as OUSD, launched on Solana, Base, and Tempo, according to reporting cited on Coindesk. The five founding partners have each contributed toward the $1B liquidity pool and plan to hold and use OUSD within their own companies, rather than treating it purely as a passthrough settlement asset. The stablecoin is issued through a consortium structure known as Open Standard, which Bloomberg describes as backed by Stripe and Visa among its members.
The involvement of Coinbase, Mastercard, Shopify, Stripe, and Visa signals an attempt to embed a stablecoin directly into existing payment rails used by merchants, card networks, and crypto exchanges simultaneously, rather than building adoption from a single vertical. By committing $1B in liquidity upfront and pledging to hold and use OUSD internally, the founding partners are positioning the token as working capital within their own operations, not just a product offered to third parties.
Separate reporting on the same launch describes Open Standard as backed by more than 140 firms, including Stripe, Visa, and Mastercard, with OUSD structured to distribute reserve yield back to partners. That yield-sharing mechanism distinguishes OUSD from stablecoins whose reserve income accrues solely to the issuer, and ties the economic incentives of a wide partner network to the stablecoin's circulation and reserve size.
Coverage of the launch is corroborated across multiple outlets, with at least four distinct sources describing the rollout, the founding partner list, and the liquidity commitment consistently. The choice to deploy on Solana, Base, and Tempo rather than a single chain suggests an intent to make OUSD accessible across different transaction environments, from high-throughput consumer payments to enterprise-oriented settlement.
What remains unclear is how the $1B in liquidity will be allocated across the three chains, what specific use cases Coinbase, Mastercard, Shopify, Stripe, and Visa intend for OUSD within their own operations, and how the broader 140-plus firm network referenced in some reporting relates structurally to the five named founding partners. Also unresolved is how reserve composition and yield distribution mechanics will be disclosed going forward, and whether additional chains or partners will be added as adoption grows.