Open USD Goes Live as the Default Stablecoin on Stripe

Open USD, known as OUSD, is now live, and Stripe is wiring it into its payments stack as the default stablecoin. The go-live on September 30, 2026 turns the consortium we covered in July from an announcement into a working network that businesses can use for treasury, payouts and card programs.

• OUSD runs on Ethereum, Solana, Base and Tempo.
• The five founding partners are Coinbase, Mastercard, Shopify, Stripe and Visa, each with an equal initial stake, and they have committed more than $1B in liquidity.
• The network has 200+ partners, and there are no mint or burn fees.
• Stripe says OUSD is now the default stablecoin across Treasury, Issuing, Global Payouts, Crypto Onramp and Payments.

What is Open USD (OUSD)?

OUSD is a dollar stablecoin designed to be owned and operated by a group of payments and commerce companies rather than a single issuer. Our earlier explainer on the Open USD consortium and its shared-yield rail covers the structure. The news this week is that the token is live and usable on four networks.

Each of the five founders holds an equal initial equity stake, and the wider network now counts more than 200 partners, including UBS, SBI Holdings and Jeeves, according to reporting on the launch. Partners earn rewards based on OUSD activity, including balances held on Stripe.

How is Stripe using OUSD?

Stripe's announcement says OUSD is now the default stablecoin across several products: Treasury, Issuing, Global Payouts, Crypto Onramp and Payments. For a business, that means stablecoin balances, payouts and card spending can run on one asset without choosing a token each time. Ramp is also expected to offer OUSD-backed accounts soon.

Defaults matter because most businesses accept whatever a platform recommends. Making OUSD the default gives it immediate reach across Stripe's merchant base.

How big is the stablecoin market OUSD is entering?

CoinDesk puts the overall stablecoin market above $300 billion, with USDT at roughly $143 billion and USDC at about $74 billion. OUSD is entering a market with established leaders, and its differentiator is governance and economics: rewards flow to partners who bring activity to the network rather than to a single company.

What should readers watch next?

This is an explainer rather than a recommendation, but a few markers are worth following: how many of the 200+ partners start moving real volume, how quickly Ramp's OUSD-backed accounts arrive, and how the four chains share liquidity. Earlier this month we looked at how Reap and Visa are expanding stablecoin card access, and OUSD slots into the same push toward everyday stablecoin payments. For more, see our crypto coverage.

Sources: Stripe: OUSD is now live on Stripe — September 30, 2026; FX News Group: Stripe partners with Open Standard to make OUSD available to businesses — September 30, 2026; CoinDesk: Open USD takes a different stablecoin model — September 2026.