The OpenUSD alliance of 140 partners is facing a trade credibility crisis.

The Open USD stablecoin venture was launched on Solana with over 140 named founding partners, including Visa, Mastercard, BlackRock, Stripe, Coinbase, Google, and a host of major South Korean financial institutions.

7/6/20264 min read

List of partners and their promises

Open Standard's announcement positioned OUSD as a structurally distinct alternative to Tether's USDT and Circle's USDC through a revenue-sharing venture model, where participating businesses, rather than a single issuer, would jointly manage the protocol and receive reserve income generated from OUSD's underlying asset, minus a small operating fee retained by Open Standard itself. The company described OUSD as "an open infrastructure for global financial activity," with Zach Abrams, former co-founder of Bridge, the stablecoin infrastructure company that Stripe acquired in 2024, serving as founding CEO.

Open USD's list of partners is like a cross-section of the global financial system, with payment networks and processors including Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, Stripe, Adyen, Fiserv, Checkout.com , Nuvei, Remitly, and Western Union; financial institutions including BlackRock, BNY, Standard Chartered, DBS, and Commonwealth Bank of Australia; and cryptocurrency companies such as Coinbase, Crypto.com , and Fireblocks. The announced model offers three distinct features: no fees for creation and exchange, no volume limits; distribution of reserve profits among participating partners; and collective governance through a partner council, unlike the single-issue model where Tether and Circle retain billions of dollars in reserve income annually.

Circle shares plummeted following the announcement as investors interpreted the alliance's composition as a direct threat to USDC's distribution model, an understanding that suggested the named partners had actually committed to shifting corporate payment volumes through OUSD instead of continuing to support USDC.

Denials from South Korea

Samsung Electronics stated that there have been no formal negotiations with the Open USD issuer and its role in the matter remains unclear. Dunamu and K Bank told local media that Open Standard only inquired about their interest in joining. Another company representative said they only learned of their inclusion in the alliance list through South Korean media.

Upbit, South Korea's largest cryptocurrency exchange, denied claims that it was involved in the issuance of Open USD, despite operator Dunamu appearing on the list of participating businesses published by Open Standard, stating that it only expressed willingness to consider joining the OpenStandard ecosystem if it expands in the future.

OpenAssets founder Gabor Gurbacs noted that some of his clients listed as OUSD partners claimed they never signed or agreed to anything. "Either the media has seriously misrepresented something, or the list of participants is misleading," he stated on July 3rd. Columbia Business School visiting professor Omid Malekan described the situation as reflecting what he called the "logo-scattering and luck-seeking" phase in stablecoin adoption, arguing that "it's easy to get your name on the list" while "actually changing business behavior and business models is difficult," a criticism that goes straight to the core credibility issue Open Standard currently faces.

Circle's counterattack and the debate that ensued.

The confusion over partners provided Circle with a valuable strategic moment. While Open Standard faced denials from its supposed partners, Circle bolstered its narrative of institutional infrastructure, and Allaire publicly articulated why alliance models face structural disadvantages—a position that transformed the OUSD credibility crisis into a relative validation of the governance stability of USDCs created by a single issuer.

However, this event also prompted investors to more broadly reassess where the value of stablecoins ultimately accumulates. Arca's chief investment officer, Jeff Dorman, argued that the opportunity extends beyond issuers like Circle and Tether to exchanges, payment companies, wallets, custodians, and blockchain networks that distribute and process digital dollars, suggesting that as stablecoins penetrate deeper into mainstream finance, those distribution channels could ultimately prove to be the bigger winners.

The trade agreement between Circle and Coinbase regarding the sharing of USDC reserve income, which was reportedly set to be renewed in August 2026, has faced renewed scrutiny following the OUSD announcement. Omar Kanji of Dragonfly suggests that this announcement makes a split between Circle and Coinbase more likely, although he ultimately expects the two companies to renew the agreement with revised economic terms while continuing to compete in some areas.

Assessment and Conclusion

The OpenUSD case serves as a cautionary tale for the venture stablecoin model, demonstrating that the gap between a company's positive response to a preliminary inquiry and its formal commitment to managing a stablecoin protocol and routing significant payment volumes through it is a vast, practical gap often concealed by public partnership announcements. This discrepancy between public listings and what the companies themselves acknowledge is not merely a marketing misstep; it highlights the fragile foundation upon which some claims about the legitimacy of stablecoins are being built.

For the adoption of stablecoins in the institutional sector in general, this case further reinforces that partnership announcements without verifiable commitment mechanisms – executed agreements, governance involvement, and measurable payment volume routing – provide limited and unsustainable signals about the trajectory of actual adoption. The stablecoin market has entered a phase where names associated with a launch announcement are being judged against a higher standard of proof than in previous cryptocurrency cycles, reflecting the greater sophistication of institutional investors in distinguishing genuine delivery infrastructure from ambitious partner lists assembled for marketing impact.

Disclaimer: The information presented in this article is the author's personal opinion in the field of cryptocurrencies. This is not financial or investment advice at all. Every investment decision should be based on careful consideration of your personal portfolio and risk tolerance. The opinion in the article does not represent the official position of the platform. We recommend that readers do their own research and consult experts before making any investment decisions.

Synthesized and analyzed by HCCVenture

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