Open USD Launches with $468M, Aims to Challenge USDT & USDC via Stripe

New Stablecoin Enters Competitive Market

Open USD (OUSD), a stablecoin backed by over 200 organizations, debuted on September 30th with roughly $468 million in circulation. The token’s launch is notable for its distribution partnership with Stripe, the payments giant that processed $1.9 trillion in volume during 2023 – a 34% year-over-year increase.

Currently, OUSD represents less than 0.3% of Stripe’s monthly transaction volume of approximately $158 billion, highlighting the potential for growth if businesses adopt it for payments and treasury operations. The stablecoin is natively issued on Tempo, Base, Ethereum, and Solana, offering multiple avenues for businesses to utilize it.

Stripe Integration and Partner Incentives

Stripe is integrating OUSD into its Treasury, Global Payouts, and Payments services, alongside stablecoin-backed card products. A key feature of Open Standard, the issuer of OUSD, is its reward structure. Most reserve yield generated by the stablecoin flows back to participating partners, incentivizing payment companies and platforms to distribute and utilize OUSD. Founding partners include Stripe, Visa, Mastercard, Coinbase, and Shopify.

The current stablecoin market is heavily dominated by Tether’s USDT ($183.8 billion) and Circle’s USDC ($74.1 billion), collectively accounting for 84% of the $300+ billion sector. OUSD’s $468 million supply represents a small fraction of this market, but upcoming integrations with Coinbase (starting October 1st) and Mastercard via BVNK are expected to expand its reach.

Source: CryptoSlate