On 30 June 2026, a group of 140 financial and technology companies, including Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, and Shopify, backed Open USD, a new digital dollar built for moving money around the world. It goes live later this year. When names this big get behind a single digital dollar, what matters is who is building it, and how.
Stablecoins already add up to more than $300 billion. For years, they were used mainly for crypto trading. Now some of the largest payment networks are backing them as shared infrastructure, to move money across borders faster and more cheaply than a bank can.
What sets Open USD apart is how it is owned and paid for, which is different from how the biggest stablecoins work today.
The numbers at a glance
- 140+ backers, including Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, and Shopify.
- More than $300 billion: the size of the global stablecoin market today.
- About 17%: how far shares in Circle, which issues the USDC stablecoin, fell the day Open USD was announced, though a change to stock market indexes the same week added to the drop.
The problem with traditional cross-border payments
Send an email or a photo to another country and it arrives in seconds, for nothing. Send money through a bank and it takes days and costs a premium.
The reason is that there is no single, shared network for money the way there is for information. Traditional cross-border payments run through a chain of correspondent banks. When you send money from a bank in London to a bank in Lagos, it does not travel directly. It passes through a series of intermediary banks, and each one takes a fee, adds a margin on the currency conversion, and slows the payment down.
That system is expensive to run. It works only during banking hours, and it makes small international transfers barely worth doing. For a business running international payroll, the delays tie up cash. For a freelancer paid from abroad, the fees eat into money already earned.
Why stablecoins became the alternative
A stablecoin is a digital version of a currency, usually the US dollar, that holds a steady value. Because stablecoins move on blockchain networks rather than through banks, they skip the correspondent-banking chain. They settle in minutes, work around the clock, and pass value straight from sender to receiver.
For years, the main use for stablecoins was crypto trading. Over the past three years that changed. Payment companies worked out that a token tied to the dollar, one that settles in minutes, is well suited to cross-border payments.
When you send money abroad on a modern platform, you pay in your local currency. The platform converts it to a stablecoin, moves that value across the world in minutes, and converts it back into the recipient's currency before it reaches their account. You never handle the stablecoin yourself; you get a faster, cheaper transfer.
What makes Open USD different: the economics
Until now, the stablecoin market has been led by issuers that mint the tokens, hold real dollars in reserve to back them, and keep the interest those reserves earn. With billions of dollars in reserve and interest rates where they are, that income runs to hundreds of millions of dollars a quarter.
Open USD changes that model in three ways, according to its backers:
- No fees to create or redeem it. Businesses can mint and redeem Open USD at no cost, which removes a charge that kept large payment networks from moving big volumes this way.
- Shared income. Instead of one issuer keeping the interest on the reserves, Open Standard, the independent company behind the coin, returns most of it to the businesses that use it, after a management fee.
- Shared governance. A board of partner companies runs the project, so no single company controls the rules.
That is the target. The most profitable part of the stablecoin business, the interest on the reserves, is now something a coalition wants to share rather than keep. On the day of the announcement, shares in Circle, whose business depends on that income, dropped sharply.
Open USD is not live yet; it launches later this year, and analysts are divided on whether it will succeed. A shared coin still needs deep liquidity, licences, and adoption, and earlier coalition-run stablecoins have struggled to win market share. For now, the launch is a signal rather than a settled outcome.
What it means for a business
As more international payments settle on stablecoins, the cost of moving money falls. Shared infrastructure and fee-free minting let payment providers process your supplier payouts and international payroll for a fraction of a traditional bank wire.
Settlement on a blockchain also happens in minutes and leaves an exact, transparent record, so you know when your supplier has the money, rather than waiting three days for an intermediary bank to clear it.
What it means for your everyday transfers
As Open USD and established issuers like Circle and Tether compete, the industry moves toward better exchange rates, faster transfers, and lower fees. Whether you make international transfers or get paid from abroad, those savings reach you.
Juicyway already runs on stablecoins
When you move money across borders with us, we route around the slow, expensive correspondent-banking chain, and you see the exact exchange rate before you confirm. Stablecoins make that possible, out of sight.
We handle the infrastructure, the compliance, and the currency conversion. You get the speed and the saving.
Key terms
- Stablecoin. A digital currency tied to a stable asset, usually the US dollar, designed to hold a steady value.
- Correspondent bank. A bank that acts as a middleman for another bank, often to pass an international transfer along the chain.
- Minting and redeeming. Creating new stablecoins by depositing currency (minting), or handing back stablecoins to withdraw the currency (redeeming).
- Reserve income. The interest earned on the real money, such as US Treasury bills or cash, held to back a stablecoin's value.
Frequently asked questions
Is Open USD a cryptocurrency I need to buy? No. For most people and businesses, Open USD works behind the scenes. Payment platforms use it to move your local currency abroad faster and more cheaply, and you never have to hold it.
Why did a rival stablecoin issuer's shares fall when Open USD was announced? Issuers like Circle earn money by keeping the interest on the reserves that back their coin. Open USD plans to give most of that interest to its partners instead, so investors saw a model that could pressure how the established issuers make money. A change to stock market indexes the same week added to Circle's fall.
How could this make my cross-border payments cheaper? If Open USD's partners share in the income the system earns, they can use it to lower the fees they charge you, or add rewards. How much reaches you depends on how widely the coin is adopted, which is still to be seen.
Is it safe for businesses to use for settlement? Open USD is being built by a coalition of heavily regulated firms, including Visa and Mastercard, with compliance and shared governance in mind. It is not live yet, so a business would want to see how it launches, and what licences and protections come with it, before relying on it.
How does this affect my Juicyway transfers? It supports the way we already work. Juicyway uses stablecoins behind the scenes to make your cross-border transfers fast and low-cost. As the wider system around digital dollars grows and improves, it helps us keep transfers quick and affordable.
