TL;DR:
- Robust consortium: The Open Standard initiative is supported by more than 140 globally heavy-hitting corporations, including Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, Coinbase, and BlackRock.
- Disruptive yield model: Unlike traditional stablecoin issuers, Open USD plans to distribute nearly all the yield from its reserves to its distribution partners.
- Immediate stock market impact: The official announcement of this network triggered a 17% drop in Circle’s stock price on June 30.
The Open Standard consortium announced the creation of Open USD (OUSD), a new dollar-backed stablecoin that seeks to redefine the rules of the game for digital liquidity. CoinShares’ latest report suggests that this development could be the most significant challenge recorded to date for Circle’s business model and its USDC stablecoin.
Open USD is not live yet, but its model already matters.
In his latest research, Luke Nolan (@eazygambit), Senior Research Associate at CoinShares, looks at how @openstandard’s OUSD could challenge stablecoin economics by sharing reserve income with distribution partners.
As he… pic.twitter.com/QbFdrmBd9o
— CoinShares (@CoinSharesCo) July 15, 2026
The direct challenge to Circle’s profit margins
The proposed structure for Open USD changes the conventional issuance paradigm. Traditionally, issuers like Tether and Circle retain all the interest generated by the cash and bond reserves backing their tokens.
The Open Standard project documentation indicates that the new token will systematically share its reserve yields with the platforms, wallets, and payment processors responsible for distributing it, charging only a basic administration fee. The CoinShares analysis presented by analyst Luke Nolan reveals that this strategy could substantially erode Circle’s profit margins, forcing the company to renegotiate its own distribution agreements to retain its key partners.
The CoinShares report details that the real battlefield is not immediately found in circulating supply parity, but rather in the operational costs associated with user acquisition. The analysis notes that Circle already faces significant challenges in expanding the USDC supply against a variety of new competitors. With the arrival of an infrastructure that offers native financial returns to its intermediaries, pressure on Circle’s interest income could intensify if global interest rates fluctuate downward.
Competitive differences compared to Tether
The source’s financial report clarifies that Open USD does not position itself the same way against the stablecoin giant, Tether (USDT). The analytics firm indicates that USDT’s dominance remains heavily entrenched in emerging markets and offshore liquidity systems. These markets depend on geographical factors and deep liquidity networks that an institutionally-driven consortium could hardly replace in the short term.
Conversely, Open USD’s target market directly overlaps with the regulated and corporate sector of traditional finance and Web3 in which Circle operates. However, CoinShares analysts qualify that the Open Standard project remains a theoretical proposal scheduled for its operational debut in the second half of 2026. The network has yet to confirm critical structural details, such as the exact composition of its reserves, management administrative fees, and the financial institutions that will act as authorized custodians.
