Open Standard, led by Zach Abrams, co-founder of Stripe-owned stablecoin infrastructure company Bridge, has introduced Open USD, a stablecoin for global money movement with support from more than 140 companies including BlackRock, Visa, Stripe, Google, Coinbase, and DBS.

“Existing stablecoins have great strengths, but to use them at scale, businesses need something that’s open, low-cost, high-throughput, broadly accessible, and aligned to their interests,” Abrams stated.

“We believe stablecoins can play an important role in the evolution of digital markets when supported by trusted infrastructure and practical utility. Open USD is a constructive step toward giving businesses more choice in how they access tokenized value and participate in internet native digital rails,” Samara Cohen, BlackRock’s global head of market development, said.

The stablecoin is scheduled to launch later this year. The launch targets major barriers to institutional stablecoin adoption, including expensive issuance and redemption, limited participation in reserve revenue and reliance on centralized issuers.

“Stablecoins are the most important thing happening in payments right now, and we’re committed to giving our customers access to the best options available – including Open USD and beyond,” Shan Aggarwal, Coinbase’s chief business officer, commented on the announcement . The more great infrastructure this industry builds together, the faster we close the gap between what payments are today and what they should be.”

Open USD will return the majority of reserve-generated revenue to participants that adopt and distribute the stablecoin, retaining only a small management fee to fund operations. In addition, it will eliminate minting and redemption fees and place governance under an independent company owned collectively by ecosystem participants.

“The technologies that changed the world, from the internet to mobile networks, succeeded because they became shared infrastructure that anyone could build on. As stablecoins become a new way to move value globally, we believe the infrastructure behind them should follow the same path: open, interoperable and broadly accessible. Open Standard is an effort to help build that foundation,” Mastercard’s chief product officer Jorn Lambert stated.

The incentive model is designed to reward partners for expanding adoption while enabling Open Standard to maintain the technical, compliance and operational infrastructure supporting the network.

“Fireblocks already settles a meaningful share of global stablecoin volume for banks, PSPs, and the world’s largest payment networks. Joining Open Standard is a natural extension of that role, and a real signal that the industry is consolidating around shared, regulated infrastructure rather than building it in silos,” Michael Shaulov, CEO of Fireblocks, noted.

The project follows a report earlier this month that major payment companies Stripe, Visa and Mastercard were nearing the launch of a stablecoin platform, with Coinbase evaluating potential participation.

Stablecoins have become a strategic focus for global payments firms. The market is valued at approximately $307 billion, with Tether (USDT) accounting for $184 billion, per CoinGecko.

Industry players have accelerated their investments in the past year. Stripe acquired Bridge for $1.1 billion, Mastercard purchased BVNK and is expanding its continuous stablecoin settlement capabilities, and Visa has widened its settlement pilot to nine blockchain networks.