Circle Internet Group just learned what it feels like to be the incumbent. On June 30, shares of the USDC issuer plummeted 13-15% to around $65-66 after a consortium of more than 140 companies, including some of Circle’s closest partners, announced a rival dollar-backed stablecoin called Open USD (OUSD).
The names on the consortium’s roster read less like a startup pitch deck and more like a who’s who of global finance: Coinbase, BlackRock, and Visa. That’s Circle’s largest distribution partner, its biggest asset management ally, and one of the world’s dominant payment networks, all backing a product designed to compete directly with USDC.
What Open USD actually changes
Unlike USDC or Tether’s USDT, which are each controlled by a single issuing entity, Open USD operates under a consortium governance model. The more consequential detail is the revenue-sharing model. Under the current arrangement, Circle paid Coinbase $908 million in a single recent year as a distribution fee for hosting USDC on its platform. Open USD flips that dynamic by letting participating firms retain earnings on reserves directly, rather than routing payments through a single issuer.
OUSD is set to launch later in 2026, initially operating on Base, Coinbase’s layer-2 network, and Solana. The choice of Base is particularly notable given that Coinbase both operates that blockchain and was previously Circle’s most important USDC distribution channel.
