Perspective: OUSD May Directly Impact USDC Distribution Model and Profit Margins

On July 15, CoinShares stated that the stablecoin project Open USD, driven by a consortium of banks, could directly impact the distribution economic model and profit margins of Circle's USDC. This is due to its proposal to distribute reserve earnings to participating partners rather than retaining them primarily with the issuer. This mechanism may increase the costs for maintaining the circulation network of USDC and pose more substantial competitive pressure on Circle once it launches in the second half of 2026. However, CoinShares also pointed out that Open USD has not yet officially launched, and key details such as the reserve structure and fee model have not been disclosed. In contrast, USDC still possesses existing advantages such as liquidity, access to trading platforms, and integration with decentralized finance and payment scenarios. Therefore, Open USD can currently be viewed as a credible challenger to USDC, but its actual impact remains to be validated. On July 1, Open Standard announced the launch of the new stablecoin Open USD (OUSD) aimed at global capital flows, stating that over 140 companies have joined the ecosystem, including financial, payment, and crypto industry institutions such as Visa, Stripe, Mastercard, American Express, BlackRock, BNY, DBS, an exchange, MetaMask, Aave, Ripple, Fireblocks, Solana, and Polygon. Open USD is based on three core design principles: supporting zero-cost, large-scale minting and redemption for enterprises; returning all reserve asset earnings to partners after deducting a small management fee; and governance by a board composed of independent company Open Standard and partners, rather than being controlled by a single issuer.