Open USD: Stripe's Stablecoin Network Faces a Long Test

On June 30, Stripe, Visa, Mastercard, Coinbase, BlackRock, BNY, DBS, OCBC, Standard Chartered, Google, Shopify, and more than 140 other companies signed on to Open USD. The dollar-backed stablecoin, run by Open Standard, is set to go live later this year. Zach Abram leads the initiative; Stripe bought his company Bridge in late 2024 for its stablecoin infrastructure.

Open USD differs from USDT and USDC in structure. Those are issuer-led tokens where reserve economics flow to the company running them. Open USD presents itself as a shared network asset. Participants get lower minting and redemption costs and a say in governance. Reserve returns stay inside the system.

Counting the logos and declaring stablecoin adoption a done deal misses the history. Libra had logos too. The harder test, several Forrester analysts said: 140 partners are a start, not a finish. Networks earn adoption integration by integration, jurisdiction by jurisdiction. Libra died because it lacked regulatory trust and credible governance. Open USD launches later, with a narrower use case and incumbent buy-in from both Visa and Mastercard.

The consortium structure carries specific risks. Banks and payment providers that sign on face governance deadlock: a group with more than 140 members, split between crypto-native firms such as Coinbase and Stripe and incumbent financial institutions such as BNY and DBS, risks slowing decision-making on roadmap and reserve management. Competitors such as USDT and USDC already have liquidity, exchange adoption, and distribution across crypto markets. Open USD must build that from scratch outside the partner list.

The pitch is that Open USD targets specific costs and governance problems with existing stablecoins: high minting and redemption costs and limited influence over issuer roadmaps. Reserve economics, which usually flow to the issuer, would instead stay within the consortium.

Bridge built the stablecoin rails Stripe was already using. Buying it gave Stripe the engineering team and the network relationships that underpin Open USD. The strategy mirrors an older playbook: SWIFT became infrastructure because banks needed a common messaging network. Visa and Mastercard built two-sided markets. Open USD wants the same pattern for programmable money. The difference is timeline. SWIFT and Visa grew organically over decades. Open USD is trying to compress that into a few years.

MiCA in Europe creates a clear rulebook for stablecoins. The US does not have one. Open USD will need regulatory approval in both to become critical infrastructure. The consortium's membership includes institutions from multiple jurisdictions, which may help on that front.

If Open USD succeeds, USDT and USDC lose the business-payments layer, Forrester analysts said. Smaller stablecoin issuers get squeezed as the corridor consolidates. Failure leaves Stripe on the hook for its Bridge acquisition and the consortium pitch. Visa and Mastercard, having backed Open USD's governance model rather than going direct, face a similar reset.

The stablecoin market is roughly $200 billion, dominated by USDT and USDC. A successful Open USD would open a third leg in the stablecoin market, Forrester analysts said. For traders, the near-term move is in the signaling: Visa and Mastercard's public backing tells you the banks want a shared standard, not a single-issuer token. That is a directional signal for where payment infrastructure is heading, even if Open USD itself takes years to scale.

Go-live is set for later in 2026. The 12 to 24 months after launch will test whether the consortium holds together and whether regulators in major jurisdictions sign off, Forrester analysts said. Transaction volumes will either validate the pitch or not.

A live Open USD transaction between a DBS client and a Standard Chartered client before 2027 confirms the pitch is real, Forrester analysts said. A second wave of signatories drawn from actual users, not just launch partners, and a regulatory no-action letter from a major jurisdiction strengthen the case. A US or EU regulatory block before go-live breaks the thesis. A governance dispute between crypto-native members and the incumbent banks slows any adoption.

Mastercard, one of the signatories, carries an Alpha Score of 65 out of 100, a Moderate label.

Forrester's payments research team tracks stablecoin infrastructure, including Stripe's Bridge acquisition and the BVNK playbook. No date has been set for a live Open USD test transaction.