A consortium of over 140 companies including Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, Coinbase, BlackRock, and Google has launched Open USD (OUSD), a new dollar-pegged stablecoin operated by an independent entity called Open Standard. Unlike Circle and Tether, OUSD allows free minting and redemption with no volume caps, and routes nearly all reserve interest income back to partners rather than a single issuer. This directly attacks Circle's primary revenue model. Circle shares dropped 15–17% on the announcement day. The token is expected to launch later in 2026, following the GENIUS Act regulatory framework established in July 2025. Analysts remain cautious about OUSD's ability to displace incumbents given Tether's 62% and Circle's 25% market share.
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