Visa, Mastercard, and Stripe Back New Stablecoin Open USD with $1 Billion Commitment

A group of major companies including Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, Coinbase, and Shopify have collectively committed $1 billion in liquidity to Open USD (OUSD), a new stablecoin launched on September 30. This backing from prominent payment processors gives OUSD a significant boost as it enters the market.

OUSD's business model is distinct from its competitors, including Tether's USDT and Circle's USDC. Unlike these established players, which keep most of their reserve interest income for themselves, Open USD shares this revenue with its partners. This sets up an incentive for Coinbase and other companies to favor OUSD over USDC.

The $1 billion in liquidity is provided by the partner companies, allowing users to easily convert OUSD into dollars. While this commitment is substantial, it still lags behind Tether's massive market cap of around $184 billion. However, OUSD is growing rapidly and has already seen strong initial interest with trading liquidity exceeding $400 million on its first day.