Visa, Stripe, Mastercard Launch Open USD Stablecoin for Cross-Border Transactions

A consortium of payment giants has launched a new US dollar-pegged stablecoin called Open USD (OUSD). The initiative, backed by Visa Inc. (), Stripe Inc., and Mastercard Inc. (), aims to provide a cheaper, faster, and more programmable settlement rail for cross-border transactions.

OUSD is issued directly by Stripe subsidiary Bridge and is backed by dollar reserves managed across Lead Bank, and . Monthly reserve attestations will be publicly released to ensure the token's stability.

The token has initial deployment anchored by Visa, Stripe, BVNK (owned by Mastercard), and committing to mint $1 billion in total token supply to establish immediate liquidity. OUSD operates natively across several major blockchain networks, including Ethereum, Solana, Base, and Tempo, alongside initial exchange support on venues such as Coinbase.