More Than 100 Institutions Back Open USD in Challenge to Stablecoin Establishment

Stablecoins are moving beyond crypto trading into payments and treasury management, forcing traditional banks to weigh public-chain tokens against tokenized bank deposits. The U.S. GENIUS Act, signed on July 18, 2025, requires 1:1 backing with high-quality liquid assets and regular disclosures, while leaving stablecoins outside federal deposit insurance. Citizens estimates circulating supply could rise tenfold from about $300 billion to nearly $3 trillion by 2030, making control of the next generation of payment rails strategically important.

Open Standard unveiled Open USD on June 30, 2026, with Citizens Bank joining more than 140 partners, including Visa, Mastercard, BNY, Stripe and Coinbase. The dollar-pegged token is expected to go live later in 2026, with no minting or redemption fees or volume caps; reserve income will be shared among partners after a management fee. Citizens is also pursuing bank-led infrastructure: on April 30, it joined FIS and six U.S. financial institutions in Project Keystone, a network for issuing, transferring and settling regulated deposits in digital form.

Issuers have long retained all interest earned on reserves in the $160 billion global market for U.S. dollar stablecoins. That lucrative model is now under pressure as new issuers seek to attract yield-sensitive institutions by sharing reserve profits with partners, potentially challenging the market position of incumbent leader Circle.

Crypto asset manager CoinShares said in July 2026 that a new dollar stablecoin, Open USD, was expected to launch in the second half of 2026. Its profit-sharing model would pose a commercial threat to Circle’s USDC, which retains 100% of the returns. However, USDC’s established liquidity and integration advantages remain difficult barriers for a new entrant to replicate.