Visa and Mastercard have joined Coinbase, Shopify, and Stripe as founding partners of Open Standard, the organization behind the OUSD stablecoin. The project, which officially launched on September 30, 2026, is backed by over $1 billion in liquidity commitments from these five founding members.
OUSD operates as a dollar-pegged token available on the Ethereum, Solana, Base, and Tempo blockchains. The platform allows businesses to mint and redeem tokens at a 1:1 ratio against the US dollar without transaction fees or volume limits. Reserve assets are held by BlackRock, BNY, and Lead Bank, with monthly attestations provided to ensure transparency.
The infrastructure for OUSD issuance is managed by Bridge, a platform recently acquired by Stripe. Unlike traditional stablecoin models where issuers retain interest earned on reserves, OUSD distributes the majority of these earnings to its partners, retaining only a small management fee for Open Standard.
The network grew from over 140 companies to more than 200 by its launch, including major financial institutions like UBS. While Visa and Mastercard are supporting OUSD, they continue to back other stablecoins as part of a broader strategy to ensure interoperability and market presence. Mastercard also recently acquired BVNK to bolster its own infrastructure.
