Visa and Mastercard back $1B payments stablecoin

TLDR

Visa and Mastercard are among major firms committing $1 billion of liquidity to a new payments focused stablecoin called Open USD (OUSD).

1. Open USD (OUSD) is a multi chain, dollar backed stablecoin issued by Stripe owned Bridge, with reserves managed by major financial institutions.
2. The $1 billion in partner liquidity commitments from Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, Coinbase and Shopify targets card and merchant payments, directly challenging USDC and other payment led stablecoins.
3. The key signals will be whether card networks adopt OUSD as a default settlement asset and whether its supply grows into the tens of billions over the next few years.

Deep Dive

1. How The New Stablecoin Is Structured

Open USD (OUSD), launched on 30 September 2026, is a dollar pegged stablecoin issued by Bridge and backed by reserves managed by BlackRock, Lead Bank and BNY Mellon on networks including Ethereum, Solana, Base and Tempo. The project reports monthly reserve updates and emphasizes transparency around backing, according to the launch coverage on Open USD liquidity commitments.

Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, Coinbase and Shopify have collectively committed around $1 billion of liquidity to support OUSD, including market making and payment flows, which is designed to ensure deep trading and settlement capacity from day one. OUSDs circulating supply figure is still emerging, but trading liquidity reportedly exceeded $400 million on launch day.

2. Why This Is Different From USDC And USDT

Unlike Tether (USDT) and Circles USDC, which retain most reserve interest income at the issuer level, OUSD shares most of that revenue with its partners, who can create and redeem tokens at one dollar without fees. That revenue share gives card networks, payment processors and platforms an economic incentive to prefer OUSD over rivals in some use cases.

OUSD is aimed first at payment systems and merchants, not crypto trading venues, positioning it directly against USDC and Ripples RLUSD in areas like card settlement and cross border commerce. The article notes that Visa has previously worked on USDC settlement but is now backing a revenue sharing competitor, increasing competitive pressure on USDCs role in payments. Tethers trading focused dominance is described as largely unaffected in the short term.

3. What To Watch Next

Two milestones are likely to determine whether OUSD becomes a major stablecoin. First is default use. If Visa, Mastercard or Stripe configure their stablecoin payment platforms to settle primarily in OUSD, that would rapidly push merchant and issuer adoption. Second is scale. Analysts quoted in the launch piece suggest that OUSD supply reaching tens of billions by mid 2027 would signal a serious reshaping of stablecoin competition.

Regulation is another angle. In the United States, a new framework under the GENIUS Act creates a regulatory split at around $10 billion of outstanding stablecoin issuance, which could influence how fast large payment focused stablecoins move from state level regimes into stricter federal oversight.

Confidence: high because the commitments, design details and competitive framing are all documented in recent reporting from major financial news outlets.

Conclusion

Visa and Mastercard backing a $1 billion liquidity pool for Open USD moves stablecoins deeper into mainstream payments, not just crypto trading. If OUSD becomes the preferred settlement asset for card networks and merchants and scales into the tens of billions, it could materially change which stablecoins dominate everyday transactions and how payments and crypto rails intersect. For crypto users and builders, the practical angle is to watch where card and checkout integrations standardize, since that is where stablecoin demand and fees will concentrate.