Financial Giants and Tech Titans Form Massive Coalition to Launch 'Open USD' Stablecoin

In a direct challenge to incumbent stablecoin issuers, independent firm Open Standard announced the upcoming launch of Open USD, a new dollar-pegged stablecoin built for global enterprise scale. Backed by a massive coalition of over 140 financial institutions, payment networks, and technology giants—including Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, Coinbase, and BlackRock—the venture aims to upend traditional token economics.

Open USD seeks to resolve core bottlenecks that have historically restricted corporate adoption of digital currencies: prohibitive minting/redemption fees, the centralized accumulation of reserve yield, and rigid single-issuer roadmaps.

The new asset introduces three core architectural shifts:

• Zero-Fee Scaling: Enterprise partners can mint and redeem Open USD without any cost or volume restrictions.
• Shared Reserve Yield: Participants will directly receive yield generated by the stablecoin's underlying reserves, minus a nominal fee for operational costs.
• Collaborative Governance: The network will be governed by an independent board composed of its ecosystem partners rather than a single dominant corporation.

Ecosystem leaders have quickly aligned behind the asset. Stripe announced that Open USD will serve as the default stablecoin for businesses running on its payment platform. Meanwhile, Visa and BlackRock indicated that the network's emphasis on regulatory alignment, shared governance, and trusted infrastructure will help drive the next phase of institutional digital asset growth.

Open USD is scheduled to go live later this year.

Participating Asian Institutions

Based on the official roster of launch partners, the participating institutions explicitly headquartered in or operating out of Asian countries include:

• Japan
  • PayPay Corporation
  • Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group
  • Mizuho Financial Group
  • Rakuten Group
• South Korea
  • Shinhan Financial Group
  • KB Kookmin Card
  • K Bank
  • Kakao Bank
  • Samsung Card
  • Woori Card
  • Hana Card
  • Hyundai Card
  • BCcard
  • Nonghyup Card
  • Samsung Electronics
  • Dunamu
• Singapore
  • DBS
  • OCBC
  • UOB
  • Nium
  • StraitsX
• India
  • Infosys
• Philippines
  • Maya Bank
• Kazakhstan
  • Freedom Bank Kazakhstan

Ripple and SBI Group Secure Regulatory Nod to Launch RLUSD Stablecoin in Japan

Blockchain enterprise provider Ripple, in partnership with Japanese financial conglomerate SBI Holdings and its subsidiary SBI VC Trade, has officially launched its U.S. dollar-denominated stablecoin, Ripple USD (RLUSD), in Japan. The launch follows official regulatory approval from the Japan Financial Services Agency (JFSA). Under Japan’s Payment Services

Japan FinTech ObserverNorbert Gehrke