Open USD Redefines Stablecoin Revenue Distribution and Governance
HTX Ventures has released a report titled 'Open Infrastructure, Closed Financial Rails: Open USD, Revenue Redistribution, and Participant Governance' to examine the shift in stablecoin revenue distribution. The report finds that while blockchain technology has established an open technical infrastructure, the industry's next phase will be determined by how participants contest control rights and economic benefits.
The report highlights that stablecoins have moved from settlement tools within crypto trading into instruments for cross-border payments, corporate treasury management, and institutional back-office clearing. Visa's stablecoin settlement pilot reached an annualized run rate of approximately $7 billion by April 2026 across nine blockchains.
HTX Ventures identifies three shifts in the design of Open USD: from fee-based access to subsidized distribution using reserve yields, from bilateral negotiations to network-wide revenue sharing, and from issuer governance to participant governance. The report notes that these shifts aim to bring mid-sized payment companies, regional banks, and vertical wallets into a unified framework where partners share revenue based on contribution.
The model's viability depends on specific mechanisms such as revenue-sharing rules and the governance arrangement. A workable mechanism would weigh balance retention, actual payments, new customers, and regional compliance investments together. The report also notes that the room for issuers to retain the full reserve yield spread will narrow if revenue-sharing models generate sustained payment volumes.