On June 30, 2026, Stripe, Visa, Mastercard, Coinbase, BlackRock, BNY, DBS, OCBC, Standard Chartered, Google, Shopify, and more than 140 other companies have signed on to Open USD, a new US dollar-backed stablecoin initiative operated by Open Standard. The project is designed for powering global money movement and expected to go live later in 2026, addressing several barriers businesses face when using stablecoins at scale: high minting and redemption costs, limited influence over issuer roadmaps, and the fact that most reserve economics accrue to the issuer rather than ecosystem participants. The initiative is led by Zach Abrams, the cofounder of Bridge, which was acquired by Stripe in late 2024.

The idea is compelling. But payment leaders should treat Open USD as an important signal, not yet a proven network. Stablecoins are moving from crypto-native settlement into mainstream payment infrastructure, but the leap from “well-backed initiative” to “global payment standard” is a long one. Whether Open USD can become a SWIFT-like backbone for cross-border value transfer — or a Visa- and Mastercard-like acceptance network for programmable money — will depend on execution, governance, regulatory acceptance, liquidity, and ecosystem cooperation over time.

Why Open USD Is Different

The stablecoin market is not short of dollar tokens. USDT and USDC already dominate much of today’s liquidity, with strong crypto exchange adoption, brand recognition, and established distribution. Open USD is trying to compete on a different axis. Rather than positioning itself as another issuer-led stablecoin, Open USD is presenting itself as a shared network asset for business-scale money movement. That difference shows up in three design choices.

  • First, Open USD promises zero-cost minting and redemption with no artificial volume limits. This is important for payment companies, marketplaces, banks, remittance providers, and fintechs. Stablecoins only become useful as payment infrastructure if businesses can move in and out of the asset efficiently, predictably, and at scale.
  • Second, Open USD shares reserve economics with ecosystem partners. In many existing stablecoin models, the issuer captures most of the income generated from reserves. Open USD proposes to return reserve earnings to partners, less a management fee. This could create stronger incentives for banks, payment networks, fintechs, and platforms to integrate and distribute the token — because they participate in the economics rather than simply providing distribution for someone else’s stablecoin.
  • Third, Open USD introduces collaborative governance. The project will be operated by Open Standard, an independent company with a board made up of Open USD partners. That structure is designed to reduce dependence on a single issuer’s roadmap and make the network feel more neutral, durable, and aligned with enterprise users.

This is also where the comparison with Facebook’s 2019 Libra project is useful — but only up to a point. Like Libra, Open USD is built around the idea of a consortium-backed digital currency network; unlike Libra, it starts from a more pragmatic position: a US dollar-backed stablecoin, a business-oriented money movement use case, and a broader coalition of incumbent financial institutions, payment networks, fintechs, and crypto infrastructure providers. Libra’s failure remains a warning that partner logos and technology are not enough; global payment infrastructure also requires regulatory trust, credible governance, and disciplined execution.

The Hard Part: A Consortium Is Not Automatically A Network

Can the industry agree on a shared, neutral, economically aligned standard for programmable money movement? That is a big ambition. SWIFT became critical infrastructure because banks needed a common messaging network. Visa and Mastercard became global networks because issuers, acquirers, merchants, and consumers had aligned incentives to participate. Open USD is trying to create a similar network effect for stablecoin-based value movement.

But networks are not announced into existence. They are earned: integration by integration, jurisdiction by jurisdiction, and use case by use case. From my point of view, Open USD faces three key risks:

  • A consortium model can create neutrality. It can also create slow decision-making. Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, Coinbase, banks, crypto platforms, fintechs, and enterprise technology companies do not always want the same thing. Some will prioritize merchant acceptance. Others will care more about custody, compliance, foreign exchange, liquidity, blockchain interoperability, treasury use cases, or even disintermediation issues. Some will want aggressive expansion; others will want regulatory caution. This is the central governance test. Can Open Standard make decisions quickly enough to compete with issuer-led stablecoins while remaining inclusive enough to maintain partner trust?
  • The second test is regulatory. Stablecoins operate in a fragmented global regulatory environment. Even if Open USD complies with US rules, global corporate adoption will depend on how regulators in Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa treat reserves, redemption rights, licensing, consumer protection, sanctions screening, and settlement finality.
  • The third test is interoperability. Open USD must work across chains, wallets, payment processors, banking partners, compliance systems, and enterprise workflows. Businesses will not adopt a stablecoin simply because it is “open.” They will adopt it if it reduces reconciliation burden, improves liquidity, fits into existing enterprise resource planning and treasury systems, and works with counterparties they already trust.

Signals To Watch

For banks, payment providers, marketplaces, and treasury and finance leaders, Open USD is worth watching closely — but not yet treating as inevitable. Three signals will matter most over the next 12 to 24 months:

  1. Real transaction volume, not just partner logos. The strength of the coalition is impressive, but production payment flows will be the real proof point.
  2. Governance transparency. Businesses should look for clarity on board structure, voting rights, dispute resolution, reserve management, attestation cadence, and how Open Standard will balance competing partner priorities.
  3. Enterprise integration depth. The more Open USD appears inside merchant acquiring, payouts, remittances, working capital, foreign exchange, treasury, and embedded finance workflows, the more likely it becomes durable infrastructure rather than another stablecoin experiment.

What To Read Next

Forrester has dedicated research and blog posts on payments innovation such as stablecoin-based payments, including:

Mastercard Makes Its Stablecoin Move: The BVNK Acquisition

Predictions 2026: Payments

How Stripe And Bridge Are Pushing Stablecoin Real-World Adoption: A Conversation With Mai Leduc

The State Of Stablecoin In Japan

Ant International’s Playbook On AI, Blockchain, And Wallet Network

Predictions 2026: Asia Pacific

Forrester clients can set up an inquiry or guidance session to discuss these topics with us.

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