Coinbase joins Open USD stablecoin consortium, challenging Circle's USDC

On 30 June 2026, more than 140 companies announced the Open USD consortium, a new dollar‑stablecoin governed by an independent entity called Open Standard. Participants include Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, Coinbase, BlackRock, BNY Mellon, Google, Shopify and others. The token itself is not live yet; it is slated for launch later in 2026.

Coinbase signed on as a launch partner and will help promote Open USD while it prepares to renegotiate its existing revenue‑sharing agreement with Circle, the issuer of USDC. Under the current deal, Coinbase keeps 100 % of interest income on USDC reserves held on its platform and 50 % on reserves held elsewhere, accounting for more than half of Circle’s revenue. Circle’s stock fell roughly 17 % after the Open USD announcement.

Open USD differs from single‑issuer stablecoins such as USDC by imposing no mint or burn fees and distributing reserve yield to all consortium partners after a management fee, rather than concentrating the economics with a single issuer. The partnership gives Coinbase a diversification of income and leverage ahead of the August 2026 renegotiation with Circle, while Circle may need to adjust its model to remain competitive.