Open USD Stablecoin Goes Live, Raising Questions About Reserve Income and Confusion with Origin Dollar

The Open USD (OUSD) stablecoin has gone live on September 30, after a June announcement that dropped Circle's share price by 17%. OUSD is backed by Coinbase, Mastercard, Shopify, Stripe, and Visa, and is a dollar-backed stablecoin designed for shared payment infrastructure. The distinguishing feature of OUSD is that the interest earned on its reserves goes to the companies that distribute it, rather than the issuer.

The economics of OUSD set it apart from USDT and USDC, with two separate mechanisms: reserve income, where businesses can mint and redeem OUSD at a fixed 1:1 rate against dollars with no fee and no volume cap, and ownership of Open Standard, the company behind OUSD. The five founding partners, including Stripe, have made a liquidity commitment of more than $1 billion over the coming months.

However, there is confusion around OUSD, as a different token called Origin Dollar has been trading under the same ticker since 2020. Origin Dollar earns its yield by deploying deposits into DeFi strategies, and has a much smaller market capitalization and daily volume than OUSD. To avoid confusion, buyers should check that a venue lists Open USD rather than Origin Dollar before trading.

Open Standard has confirmed the issuer, reserve custodians, and chains, but several details remain undisclosed or inconsistent across sources. The company has promised monthly attestations on a dedicated reserves page, but the management fee and equity threshold for partners have not been disclosed.