Open Standard's OUSD stablecoin has gone live on Ethereum, Solana, Base and Tempo, backed by Coinbase, Stripe, Mastercard and Visa. The launch pairs four integration paths with more than $1 billion in liquidity commitments from founding partners, setting up direct competition with Circle's USDC.
Open Standard's OUSD stablecoin went live on Wednesday, backed by firms including Coinbase, Stripe, Mastercard, and Visa. The token launched across four networks and on exchanges including Coinbase, Kraken, and Uniswap.
Four integration paths, one-to-one conversion
In a blog post, Open Standard said its platform offers four integration paths through Coinbase, Stripe, Mastercard, and Visa. All paths support mint and burn functionality at a 1:1 USD conversion rate, at no cost, the company said. The stablecoin is natively supported on Ethereum, Solana, Base, and Tempo, with plans to add more exchanges over time.
Bridge is the stablecoin's issuer, while BlackRock, Lead Bank, and BNY hold its reserves. Open Standard confirmed it plans to release monthly attestations of the stablecoin's reserves.
Founding partners commit over $1 billion in liquidity
Coinbase, Mastercard, Shopify, Stripe, and Visa have committed more than $1 billion to support OUSD liquidity, according to a report citing an interview with Open Standard CEO Zach Abrams. He said each founding partner would contribute through the activities best suited to its business, such as holding OUSD on balance sheets or supporting market-making.
The five companies have also invested in Open Standard and received equal initial equity stakes, Abrams said, with plans to distribute much of the company's equity over the next four to five years based on contributions to the token's growth. The network seeking to integrate OUSD has grown beyond 200 businesses, including Japan's SBI Holdings, Swiss bank UBS, and fintech Jeeves.
Circle stock extends its decline
OUSD is set to compete with existing stablecoins such as Circle's USDC, Ripple's RLUSD, and Tether's USAT. According to Open Standard CEO Zach Abrams: "Stablecoins should be better money. Today, they fall short. OUSD is built to change that."
Circle's CRCL stock is trading at around $83, down over 1% today and 9% in the last five days. On July 15, Mizuho cut Circle's price target from $85 to $50 and downgraded the stock from Neutral to Underperform, citing competition from Open USD.
Sources: CoinGape, crypto.news
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