Visa, Stripe, BlackRock and 140+ firms launch Open USD stablecoin, sending Circle shares down 15%

On June 30, 2026, a consortium of over 140 financial and tech giants—including Visa, Stripe, BlackRock, and Coinbase—unveiled Open USD (OUSD), a new stablecoin designed to challenge market leaders Tether and Circle. Managed by Open Standard and led by Zach Abrams, OUSD will distribute reserve interest back to its partners and eliminate minting fees. This direct threat to the traditional stablecoin business model sent Circle (CRCL) shares tumbling up to 17% to a four-month low below $63.

Open USD stablecoin launch

• ▪Open USD is expected to go live on networks including Solana, Stellar, Base, and Polygon, and will be natively issued on the Tempo network from day one
• ▪Open Standard, an independent company backed by a consortium of over 140 firms, announced the launch of Open USD, a new dollar-pegged stablecoin
• ▪Open USD is scheduled to launch later in 2026 and will be managed by an independent organization with shared governance among partner companies

Circle share price decline

• ▪Circle Internet Group shares fell between 13% and 17% on June 30, 2026, following the announcement of the Open USD stablecoin
• ▪Circle Internet Group shares closed below $63 on June 30, 2026, marking its weakest price since late February 2026

Reserve income distribution model

• ▪Open USD will allow businesses to mint and redeem tokens without fees or volume limits, while distributing most reserve interest earnings back to participating partners
• ▪The Open USD model directly targets the revenue of incumbents like Circle, which generated 99% of its 2024 revenue from reserve interest

Stablecoin market growth projections

• ▪The global stablecoin market has grown to more than $300 billion in total capitalization
• ▪Citi projects that the global stablecoin market could grow to reach $4 trillion by the year 2030

Payment industry consortium backing

• ▪The Open USD consortium includes major payment networks Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover, alongside financial giants BlackRock and BNY
• ▪Stripe plans to make Open USD the default stablecoin for businesses running on its payment platform
• ▪Technology and fintech partners backing Open USD include Stripe, Google, Shopify, IBM, and Coinbase

Stablecoin infrastructure competition

• ▪Open USD is led by Zach Abrams, the co-founder of stablecoin infrastructure firm Bridge, which Stripe acquired for $1.1 billion
• ▪Incumbents Tether and Circle, which control roughly $145 billion and $73 billion in market capitalization respectively, are not participating in the Open USD consortium