Stripe makes Open USD its default stablecoin for business payments

Stripe now has a default stablecoin, and it is not one of the usual suspects. The payments company has made Open USD, or OUSD, the standard token for businesses that accept or move stablecoins on its platform. That is a big deal because of who is behind the token. OUSD comes from Open Standard, a consortium of more than 200 companies that includes Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Coinbase. Most stablecoins are built by one company that keeps the profits. OUSD was built by a committee of payments heavyweights that plan to split them. What OUSD actually is Open Standard officially launched OUSD on September 30, 2026. The consortium first announced its formation on June 30, 2026, so the gap from press release to live product was roughly three months. The token is issued by Bridge, a Stripe subsidiary. Like other dollar stablecoins, each OUSD is meant to be backed by reserves, so one token should always be worth one US dollar. Those reserves sit with BlackRock, Lead Bank and BNY. Bridge publishes monthly attestations on the holdings at reserves.bridge.xyz/ousd. An attestation is a snapshot check from an outside firm confirming the reserves exist. It is less exhaustive than a full...