More than 140 leading financial, cryptocurrency and fintech companies have announced the launch of a massive project to create a single dollar stablecoin called Open USD. The unprecedented alliance includes payment giants Visa, Mastercard, and Stripe, the world’s largest asset manager BlackRock, Google’s technology corporation, and key crypto market players: Coinbase, Bybit, OKX, Ripple, and MetaMask.

The initiative will be managed by an independent Open Standard structure, whose board of directors will be formed by representatives of participating companies. A key feature of Open USD will be the ability to issue and redeem tokens free of charge without any limits on transaction volume. Moreover, some of the revenue generated from Stablecoin reserves will be distributed among organizations that actively use and promote Open USD. Commission funds will be used to develop the ecosystem and ensure compliance under US law. Partners include Solana, Crypto com, Fireblocks, Gemini, Aave, eToro, Galaxy, Ledger, Trust Wallet and many others.

The news hit the market instantly. The shares of Circle, an USDC token issuer, have plummeted by more than 13% and continue to fall as the new player creates serious competition for existing market leaders.

The launch of Open USD was the culmination of rumors that had been circulating since early June, when it became known about plans by Visa, Mastercard and Stripe to create a single blockchain platform. This step fits perfectly into the context of the US discussion of the CLARITY bill, which, among other things, legalizes and regulates the payment of income to holders of stablecoins, thereby fundamentally changing the economics of this segment and encouraging the creation of such consortia.