Open Standard, the company that will operate the Open USD (OUSD) stablecoin, named Coinbase, Mastercard , Shopify, Stripe, and Visa as its initial founding partners on September 24, 2026. Each is investing in the company and helping establish OUSD supply, which Open Standard said will deliver “$1B+ in near term launch liquidity.” Zach Abrams, who co-founded Stripe-owned Bridge, becomes its full-time CEO.
OUSD is not in circulation yet. Open Standard’s website says Open USD “will launch later this year,” and American Banker reported on September 25 that the company is preparing to issue it later in 2026. The announcement gives no breakdown of each founder’s contribution or stake.
A coalition of partners becomes a company with shareholders
The update rewrites the governance Open Standard set out at launch. On June 30, the company presented Open USD with more than 140 businesses signed up and promised “a board made up of Open USD’s partners.” It now says it “will be governed by a board of directors representing its shareholders,” a board it will build over time from among its founders. Once OUSD is live, founders and participating partners “will have the opportunity to earn equity based on the supply and activity they drive on their platforms.” The company expects to add “a limited number of additional founding partners soon.”
| Item | June 30, 2026 | September 24, 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Governance | Board made up of partners | Board of directors representing shareholders |
| Founding investors | None named | Coinbase, Mastercard, Shopify, Stripe, Visa |
| Equity for partners | Not mentioned | Based on supply and activity, once OUSD is live |
| Launch liquidity | Not quantified | $1B+ in the near term |
| Leadership | Zach Abrams, also running Bridge | Zach Abrams, full time |
USDC’s largest distributor joins the challenger
Coinbase’s name carries the most weight for Circle, the issuer of USDC. According to Circle’s annual report for 2025, filed with the SEC in March 2026, the two companies partnered in 2018 through the Centre Consortium, a joint venture set up to support the growth of USDC. Under a collaboration agreement updated in August 2023, Coinbase supports USDC usage across its products, and Circle makes payments to Coinbase “tied principally to net reserve income from USDC.” Those distribution costs reached $1.4 billion in 2025, up from $924.5 million in 2024.
Coinbase’s own statement does not mention USDC. Shan Aggarwal, its chief business officer, said “our goal is to give our customers and business partners access to the best options available on trusted infrastructure.” Neither Circle nor Tether, the issuer of USDT, appears among the 208 names on Open Standard’s partner page.
What the five founders said
- Mastercard: “Businesses want choice in how they pay, get paid, and move value globally. Open USD helps expand those options, and Mastercard will help connect it to the trusted capabilities, partners and wallets that customers need to put stablecoins to work in the real economy,” said Jorn Lambert, chief product officer.
- Visa: “The adoption of on-chain money and payments will hinge on trust and interoperability,” said Jack Forestell, chief product and strategy officer.
- Stripe: Will Gaybrick, president of technology and business, said he “couldn’t be more excited to work alongside them to make Open USD the default for global money management on Stripe and beyond.”
- Shopify: the company is “committing early as a founding partner so the needs of commerce—and the merchants powering it—are represented,” said Rohit Mishra, vice president of product for payments, tax, and cross-border.
- Coinbase: “Stablecoins enable payments for the internet age,” said Aggarwal.
Abrams leaves Bridge to run Open Standard
Abrams led product teams at Square, Coinbase, and Brex before founding Bridge, which Open Standard describes as a stablecoin orchestration and issuance platform. He had run both Bridge and Open Standard for several months and will now focus solely on Open Standard. “I’m leaving stripe to run Open Standard full time,” he wrote on X less than two hours after the company’s own post there, adding that at Bridge “our impact was constrained by issuers’ economics and incentives.” Neither post names Bridge’s next leader.