Open USD is not just another stablecoin, but an attempt to redefine who actually reaps the value generated by tokenised dollars. The project, backed by over 140 partners including Visa, Stripe, Coinbase, Mastercard and BlackRock, aims to distribute the majority of the revenue generated from the reserves to network members, rather than concentrating it in the hands of a single issuer.
The most interesting aspect is not just the list of names, but the shift in logic. In the traditional model, a stablecoin such as USDC concentrates the returns within the issuer and its closest partners; Open USD, on the other hand, seeks to transform the stablecoin into a shared infrastructure, with independent governance and distributed incentives. This explains why the market has interpreted the news as a direct challenge to Circle’s economic advantage; indeed, Circle’s share price reacted negatively to the new initiative.
To understand what really lies behind this, one must look at the less visible but more important aspect: the float. Whoever controls the minting and redemption flows – and, above all, whoever retains the interest generated by the reserves – controls the economic heart of the stablecoin. Open USD is attempting to shift that advantage from the issuer alone to the network that distributes it, and this is much more than a technical detail: it is a battle to capture value within the new payments system.
For Bitcoin and Ethereum, this news matters because it confirms that the real competition is not just about asset prices, but about who builds the liquidity, infrastructure and incentives around them. If Visa and Stripe decide to get involved, it means that stablecoins are no longer just a crypto experiment: they are the foundation of programmable finance.
There is also a strategic aspect that should not be underestimated: the fact that Coinbase is participating in Open USD whilst maintaining commercial agreements regarding USDC suggests that the market is entering a phase of dual exposure, where major players are not backing just one horse, but are positioning themselves across multiple tracks simultaneously. This is a classic sign of a paradigm shift: when everyone wants a seat at the same table, it means the dinner has already begun and the bill will be steep for those left out.
