OUSD: New Stablecoin’s Revenue Model Disrupts Crypto Economics

Over 140 prominent financial and crypto companies, including industry giants like Visa, Mastercard, Coinbase, Ripple, OKX, and Bybit, have collectively launched a new US dollar-pegged stablecoin named Open USD (OUSD). This initiative, spearheaded by Open Standard, introduces a fundamentally different economic model: participating businesses can mint OUSD at no cost and retain all earnings generated from its underlying reserves. This structural change directly challenges the established mechanisms of value capture within the stablecoin market.

Traditional stablecoin models, exemplified by Tether’s USDT and Circle’s USDC, typically see the central issuer accrue the interest generated from the substantial reserves held to back their tokens. This centralized value capture has been a key driver of their immense scale and profitability. However, OUSD’s approach decentralizes this economic benefit, distributing it directly to the network participants who mint and hold the stablecoin.

Industry experts are quickly recognizing the profound implications of this shift. Will Harborne, co-founder of Rhino.fi, stated that OUSD possesses the potential to significantly disrupt the market dominance of existing stablecoins. His assessment points directly to OUSD’s unique model of returning reserve revenue to holders as the primary differentiator, suggesting a re-evaluation of where economic value resides in the stablecoin ecosystem.

The market’s immediate reaction underscored this potential disruption. Following the announcement, Circle Internet Group experienced a notable decline in its share price, falling over 16%. This concrete market response serves as an indicator that the financial community perceives OUSD’s model as a credible threat to the incumbent stablecoin structure, rather than merely another entrant.

OUSD is slated for launch later this year, entering a stablecoin market currently valued at over $312 billion, with projections indicating a substantial growth to $4 trillion by 2030. This expansion provides ample room for new models to gain traction, particularly those offering more attractive economic incentives to network participants. Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire acknowledged the emergence of new competition, affirming his company’s continued commitment to innovation and expansion within the stablecoin sector.

This development unfolds within an increasingly supportive regulatory environment. The US President’s signing of the GENIUS Act into law last year established a clear framework for payment stablecoins. Such legislative clarity can foster further growth and innovation, legitimizing new models like OUSD and potentially accelerating the evolution of digital asset markets by providing a stable foundation for structural shifts.

The OUSD initiative illustrates a critical principle in financial technology: the long-term competitive advantage often shifts to models that redistribute value more equitably across their network, rather than centralizing it. This structural pattern suggests that the next phase of stablecoin evolution will be defined not just by technical stability, but by the underlying economic architecture that governs how and where value is captured and distributed among participants.