Open Standard Launches: Five Tech-Finance Giants Unite with Equal Stakes
Open Standard has unveiled a distinctive operational and governance structure. Moving away from a broad, consensus-driven consortium, the company adopts a streamlined model of "core governance with broad incentives." Day-to-day operations are managed by an executive team, while a small, powerful group of founding partners holds ownership and key governance rights. A wider network of external partners is incentivized based directly on their contributions to boosting OUSD supply and transaction activity.
The Founding Circle: Five Giants with Equal Footing
This core founding group is now set. Industry leaders Coinbase, Mastercard, Shopify, Stripe, and Visa have invested to become the inaugural founding partners. Notably, all five companies have received identical initial equity stakes, emphasizing a collaborative, equal-start foundation. While specific investment amounts and share percentages remain confidential, the group has collectively pledged to deploy more than $10 billion in the coming months to build a robust liquidity foundation for the OUSD stablecoin.
Ecosystem Growth: From Core Governance to Broad Adoption
CEO Zach Abrams indicated that the founding partner group is expected to grow to about 10-12 members, with plans to form a board of directors from this cohort. In parallel, the ecosystem integrating OUSD is expanding rapidly. The number of partners planning to integrate the stablecoin has surged from over 140 in June to more than 200 currently. Recent additions include Japanese financial conglomerate SBI Holdings, global wealth manager UBS, and fintech firm Jeeves, signaling growing traction across both traditional and tech-driven finance.
This architecture seeks to balance decisive governance with scalable network incentives. A few core partners steer the vision, while a vast external network fuels growth through utility, collectively driving OUSD toward broader adoption.