Open USD Goes Live to Take On Tether and Circle With a Shared-Revenue Model
Open USD has gone live with more than $1bn in liquidity commitments and around 140 partners — including Visa, Mastercard, Stripe and Coinbase — challenging Tether and Circle with a model that shares the stablecoin's economics with its backers.
A heavyweight consortium enters the ring
Open USD, a new dollar-pegged stablecoin backed by a consortium of roughly 140 fintech and banking partners, has gone live with more than $1bn in liquidity commitments. The line-up reads like a who's-who of payments: Visa, Mastercard, Stripe and Coinbase are among the names behind it.
That is not a typical crypto launch. When card networks and major fintechs co-sign a stablecoin, it signals that regulated, mainstream money movement — not speculation — is the target. The ambition is squarely aimed at the incumbents, Tether's USDT and Circle's USDC.
The real disruption is the business model
The headline isn't the coin, it's the economics. Stablecoin issuers like Circle and Tether keep the interest earned on their reserves — a famously lucrative model. Open USD instead shares that value with the partners who drive its adoption, distributing rewards based on each one's contribution to network growth.
That flips the incentive. Instead of asking partners to help an issuer get rich on the float, Open USD pays them to grow the network. When the rival model first surfaced, Circle's listed shares fell sharply — a sign investors understand the threat to incumbent margins.
Marketing Minute's read: distribution economics win platforms
This is a platform-strategy lesson dressed up as a crypto story. Incumbents win on being first and biggest; challengers win by changing who gets paid. Open USD is buying distribution by sharing the upside — the same playbook that has repeatedly unseated 'take-rate' incumbents across fintech.
For any business watching the payments space: the winner of the stablecoin race may not be the one with the best technology, but the one with the most aligned partners. If adoption follows incentives, a shared-revenue model is a serious threat to issuers who keep all the float for themselves.
Quick FAQ
What is Open USD?
A new US dollar stablecoin backed by a consortium of around 140 fintech and banking partners — including Visa, Mastercard, Stripe and Coinbase — that has launched with over $1bn in liquidity commitments.
How is it different from USDT and USDC?
Rather than keeping the interest earned on reserves, Open USD shares that value with partners based on their contribution to network growth — a revenue-sharing model designed to drive adoption.
Why does it threaten Circle and Tether?
Because it attacks the incumbents' most profitable feature — keeping all the reserve income — and uses that margin to buy distribution instead.
The Open USD story isn't really about a coin — it's about who gets paid. Incumbents keep the float; Open USD shares it to buy distribution. That's the oldest challenger playbook in fintech, and it works. Watch adoption, not the tech. — Daniel Nikolla, Founder of Merx Marketing
In platform markets, the challenger that changes who gets paid usually beats the one with the better technology — distribution economics decide the winner.
In your own market, who captures the value — and what would happen if a challenger simply shared it with your partners?
If you would like to know more about this topic, please contact us on danieln@merxmarketing.co.uk
Sources: CoinDesk, crypto.news, SiliconANGLE, The Next Web.
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Written by Daniel Nikolla, Founder of Merx Marketing Ltd and Marketing Minute
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