Consortium of 140+ firms launches Open USD stablecoin

A consortium of more than 140 major financial, technology, and crypto companies unveiled a new stablecoin on Tuesday, June 30, 2026, in a significant push to reshape the infrastructure for digital money. The project, called Open USD, is designed to be governed collectively by its partners rather than a single issuer, with a model that eliminates fees for businesses and shares the income generated by its reserves.

The initiative is led by Open Standard, an independent company whose board will be composed of participating partners. Founding CEO Zach Abrams said the consortium was created to address limitations businesses face with existing stablecoins, including high minting and redemption costs and limited access to reserve income. He described Open USD as a stablecoin built for the scale of the internet economy.

The partner list is unusually broad, spanning global payment networks like Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Stripe; financial institutions including BlackRock, BNY, Standard Chartered, and U.S. Bank; technology firms such as Google, IBM, and Shopify; and a wide array of crypto companies like Coinbase, Ripple, Solana, OKX, and MetaMask. Several partners announced...