Open USD (OUSD) is a U.S. dollar stablecoin operated by Open Standard, an independent company focused on stablecoin infrastructure and payments. Open Standard announced OUSD on June 30, 2026, and the stablecoin went live on September 30, 2026. OUSD is natively issued on Ethereum, Base, Solana, and Tempo.
Overview
OUSD is designed for use in banking, cross-border payments, settlement, and institutional trading. Open Standard's approach is based on the view that stablecoins can make money movement faster and less expensive, while existing stablecoin infrastructure can present challenges for businesses operating at scale.
The company identifies three areas it aims to address with OUSD: the cost of minting and redeeming stablecoins at larger volumes, limited access to revenue generated by reserve assets, and limited influence for businesses participating in an issuer's ecosystem.
Minting and Redemption
Businesses can mint and redeem OUSD without fees and without artificial volume limits, according to Open Standard. OUSD is issued through Bridge, a stablecoin issuance platform, which also publishes live supply and reserve information for the token.
Open Standard provides reserve transparency through Bridge's published OUSD reserve data. At launch, the published reserve information showed reserve assets equal to 100% of OUSD tokens in circulation.
Reserves
OUSD is backed by U.S. dollar reserve assets. According to Open Standard, these reserves are maintained at major financial institutions in compliance with applicable U.S. regulatory requirements.
The reserve structure is intended to support the stablecoin's relationship with the U.S. dollar. Users evaluating OUSD can review the published reserve information to monitor reported supply and reserve levels.
Reserve Economics
OUSD uses an economic model in which partners receive the earnings generated by the stablecoin's reserves, less a management fee intended to cover Open Standard's operating costs. The company describes this structure as sharing nearly all reserve revenue with businesses that contribute to OUSD adoption.
Once OUSD is live, founders and participating partners can also earn equity in Open Standard based on the OUSD supply and activity they generate through their platforms. This creates an economic relationship between stablecoin adoption and participation in the company.
Governance
Open Standard is governed through a board of directors drawn from the company's founders and representing its shareholders. The governance structure is intended to give partners that contribute significantly to OUSD adoption a role in the company's direction.
This approach places governance at the company level rather than using OUSD itself as a governance token. Holding OUSD therefore does not inherently provide voting rights over Open Standard or its corporate decisions.
Founding Partners and Team
Coinbase, Mastercard, Shopify, Stripe, and Visa are the initial founding partners of Open Standard. Each is investing in the company and participating in efforts to establish OUSD supply, with more than $1 billion in stated near-term launch liquidity.
Zach Abrams serves as Open Standard's full-time Chief Executive Officer. He previously held product leadership roles at Square, Coinbase, and Brex and founded Bridge, the stablecoin infrastructure company used for OUSD issuance.
Partners and Adoption
More than 140 businesses had signed up to use Open USD when the project was announced. The participating companies span payment networks, banks, asset managers, fintech businesses, commerce platforms, and cryptocurrency infrastructure.
Named partners include Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, American Express, Adyen, Fiserv, BlackRock, BNY, Standard Chartered, Google, Shopify, DoorDash, Coinbase, OKX, Crypto.com, and Fireblocks. Open Standard provides additional information about its partner ecosystem through its public company materials.
Market Context
OUSD enters the stablecoin market with a focus on business payments and institutional financial activity. Its multi-chain issuance across Ethereum, Base, Solana, and Tempo is designed to support integration across different blockchain environments.
The combination of reserve transparency, fee-free business minting and redemption, reserve-income sharing, and partner participation represents the core structure of Open Standard's approach to stablecoin infrastructure.
Risks and Considerations
OUSD carries risks associated with stablecoins, including reserve, counterparty, regulatory, operational, blockchain, and liquidity risks. The stability of the token depends on the management and availability of its reserve assets and the mechanisms governing issuance and redemption.
Users and businesses should review current reserve disclosures, issuance and redemption terms, applicable eligibility requirements, and Open Standard's documentation before using OUSD. Stablecoin availability and regulatory treatment can also vary across jurisdictions.
