Open USD (OUSD) Goes Live: Stablecoin Economics Shift From Issuers Keeping Reserve Yield to Sharing It With the Companies That Distribute It

What has launched

OUSD began native issuance on September 30, 2026 on four chains: Base, Ethereum, Solana and Tempo. The issuer is Bridge, which Stripe announced it would acquire for about $1.1 billion (about JPY174 billion) in 2024. Reserves are held with BlackRock, BNY and Lead Bank, with monthly attestations (third-party confirmation of balances) published. Businesses can mint and redeem at 1 USD = 1 OUSD with no fees through access points at Coinbase, Mastercard, Stripe and Visa. Stripe, BVNK and Visa's stablecoin platform were available at launch, and the Coinbase route opened on October 1. Trading venues are Coinbase, Kraken and Uniswap. The five founders have pledged more than $1 billion (about JPY158 billion) in liquidity over the coming months. Participants have grown from more than 140 at the June unveiling to more than 200, with recent additions including SBI Holdings and UBS.

The core of the revenue model

OUSD's distinctiveness is clearest against the two largest stablecoins. Tether keeps most of its reserve income. Circle shares USDC revenue with distribution partners through bilateral contracts; according to its 2025 IPO filing, Coinbase receives 50% of residual reserve income. In 2024, Circle had about $1.7 billion in revenue and reserve income but only about $156 million in net income. Whoever controls distribution captures most of the economics. OUSD distributes through a common rule for all participants rather than bilateral negotiation. Rewards are proportional to the OUSD supply and transaction activity generated on each company's platform, and the five founders receive no preferential share. Open Standard also plans to distribute most of its equity to founders and network participants over four to five years. The more a company contributes to distribution, the more it earns in both revenue and ownership.

The economics behind "sharing"

The source of distributions is interest on reserves invested in instruments such as Treasury bills. At a $10 billion balance, every 1% of yield produces $100 million a year. But fee-free minting and redemption, custody, audits, compliance and liquidity provision must be paid for out of that interest first. Only the remainder can be distributed, and the pool shrinks when rates fall. The distribution percentage, the formula and the minimum threshold for earning equity have not been disclosed, so participants are committing their distribution without seeing these numbers. The GENIUS Act, enacted in the US in July 2025, prohibits issuers from paying interest to holders. Directing yield to the businesses that distribute OUSD, rather than to holders, can be read as a way to share yield within that constraint.

Open issues and implications for Japan

The main challenge is governance. Some question how the interests of more than 200 competing companies will be reconciled and whether decisions can be made effectively. Open Standard responds that management runs the company and that participants are aligned through contribution-based rewards, so it is not a consortium. When the project was unveiled in June, Circle's stock reportedly fell as major USDC partners backed a competing dollar. In February 2026, Bridge announced conditional approval from the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) for a national trust bank charter, strengthening its regulatory footing. In Japan, domestic circulation of dollar stablecoins requires handling by a registered electronic payment instrument service provider. SBI Holdings has not said how it will use OUSD in Japan, but for remittance and payment businesses a new revenue option has appeared: distribute the coin and receive a share of reserve income.

[Business Development Insights]

1. The economic value of stablecoins is concentrating at the points of distribution rather than at issuance. Japanese payment providers, exchanges and banks should compare not only whether to issue their own stablecoin but also whether to offer their customer base to an external issuer as distribution volume in exchange for revenue sharing. In doing so, they should treat disclosure of the distribution rate, the formula and the contract term as preconditions for negotiation.
2. Reserve income sharing is directly tied to interest rates. Zero mint and redemption fees and promises of revenue sharing are the first things to be revisited when rates fall. Financial institutions designing yen stablecoins or tokenized deposits should model break-even from average balance, reserve yield and issuer fixed costs, and design distribution that holds up in a low-rate scenario.
3. A network design that rewards whoever drives circulation can be applied to yen stablecoins too. A single issuer struggles to recruit merchants and wallet providers, so a consortium-style issuer scheme with contribution-based revenue sharing and equity grants is worth considering as a collaboration model for Japanese banks and payment providers. Whether Japanese rules on electronic payment instruments permit distribution to businesses rather than users should be clarified with regulators early.

[Sources]

OUSD is live. (The Open Standard) — https://joinopenstandard.com/blog/ousd-is-live New stablecoin Open USD goes live as Coinbase, Mastercard, Stripe and Visa commit $1 billion to liquidity (CoinDesk) — https://www.coindesk.com/business/2026/09/24/open-usd-takes-on-tether-circle-with-a-different-stablecoin-model-that-s-building-money Open Standard launches OUSD stablecoin backed by Coinbase, Stripe, Visa, and Mastercard (Crypto Briefing) — https://cryptobriefing.com/open-standard-ousd-stablecoin-coinbase-stripe-visa-mastercard/ Stripe-owned stablecoin platform Bridge wins conditional OCC approval for national bank charter (The Block) — https://www.theblock.co/post/390263/stripe-stablecoin-bridge-wins-conditional-occ-approval-national-bank-charter Coinbase Takes 50% Share of Circle's Residual USDC Reserve Revenue: Filing (Decrypt) — https://decrypt.co/312757/coinbase-circles-residual-usdc-reserve-revenue-filing GENIUS Act, S.1582, 119th Congress (Congress.gov) — https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/1582 Open USD (OUSD) goes live (Onchain Finance Media, Japanese) — https://onchain-finance.media/articles/open-usd-revenue-sharing-model