Morning Minute: Major New Stablecoin Launch Shakes Incumbents
Open Standard launched Open USD (OUSD), a stablecoin for global money movement, backed by more than 140 major companies across payments, finance, commerce, and crypto, including Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, BlackRock, BNY, Google, Shopify, Coinbase, Solana, Ripple, OKX, and Aave. The launch is positioned as a direct challenge to Circle and Tether by giving businesses more control over stablecoin economics, especially the yield from Treasury reserves. Stripe said OUSD could become its default business stablecoin. Circle’s stock fell 18% on the news. Trump’s 2025 financial disclosure showed more than $1.2 billion in crypto-related earnings, mostly from about $635 million tied to his memecoin royalties and over $588 million from World Liberty Financial token sales. He also reported holding more than $50 million in Bitcoin and up to $25 million in Ethereum. The disclosure intensified conflict-of-interest concerns and added pressure on the CLARITY Act, with odds of passage reportedly falling.
