Visa just killed stablecoin fees, and 140 companies followed

More than 140 companies, including Visa, Coinbase, Stripe and Mastercard, launched a new stablecoin called Open USD on Tuesday, built to move money across borders without the fees charged by most existing tokens.

The coin is run by Open Standard, an independent company set up specifically to operate Open USD on behalf of its partners.

How it works

Open Standard built Open USD around three core rules. Businesses can mint and redeem the coin with no fees and no volume caps. Partners keep the earnings generated by the reserves backing the coin, minus a small fee that covers operating costs. Governance sits with a board made up of Open USD partners rather than a single company.

“It’s a stablecoin built for the internet economy, designed by the businesses growing it,” said Zach Abrams, founding CEO of Open Standard.

Who’s involved

The partner list spans payments, banking and crypto. Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Stripe are involved on the payments side. BlackRock, BNY, Standard Chartered and U.S. Bank represent traditional finance. Coinbase, Ripple, Solana, OKX and Crypto.com bring blockchain infrastructure, alongside wallet and custody providers Fireblocks, MetaMask, Anchorage Digital and Ledger.

Visa’s chief product and strategy officer, Jack Forestell, said the company is applying its existing risk standards to the new coin.

“Visa is bringing the same discipline, risk standards and operational rigor we apply to our global network to Open USD,” Forestell said.

BlackRock’s global head of market development, Samara Cohen, pointed to the scale of the opportunity, with the firm projecting the stablecoin market will reach $1.5 trillion by 2030.

Why crypto and payments firms are signing on

Coinbase’s chief business officer, Shan Aggarwal, said stablecoins have become central to the company’s strategy. Fireblocks CEO Michael Shaulov, whose firm already settles a meaningful share of global stablecoin volume for banks and payment processors, framed joining Open Standard as a sign the industry is consolidating around shared infrastructure rather than building competing systems in isolation.

Stripe plans to make Open USD the default stablecoin across its platform. Will Gaybrick, the company’s president of technology and business, described the move as a long-term bet on where commerce is headed.

DoorDash also joined, with co-founder Andy Fang citing faster, cheaper access to earnings for Dashers and merchants operating outside the United States. Remittance firm Félix signed on as well, with CEO Manuel Godoy saying customers care more about getting local currency quickly and at a fair price than about which rail moves the money.

What’s next

Open Standard said Open USD will go live later this year and is still inviting additional businesses to join as partners ahead of launch. The company has not yet published figures for total reserves or expected transaction volume, and has not said which blockchain networks will support the coin at launch.