Stablecoin Redefines Revenue Distribution with Open USD Design

HTX Ventures has released a report on Open USD (OUSD), a stablecoin unveiled in June 2026, examining how its design shifts revenue distribution and governance. The report highlights that while blockchain technology has established open infrastructure, the industry's next phase will be determined by how participants contest control rights and allocate economic benefits.

The technical layer of blockchain is open, but the economic layer is still being developed. 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.

However, economic rights remain distributed along established lines, with issuers minting stablecoins against user dollars and allocating reserves into cash and short-term Treasuries. The system depends on exchanges and wallets for user access, payment companies to connect merchants, banks for fiat on/off-ramps, custodians for reserves, and market makers for secondary depth.

Open USD's design has three key shifts: from fee-based access to subsidized distribution, using reserve yields to offset integration, compliance, and liquidity costs; from bilateral negotiations to network-wide revenue sharing, bringing mid-sized payment companies, regional banks, and vertical wallets into a unified framework; and from issuer governance to participant governance, giving institutions that bear business and regulatory responsibility a voice in rule-making.