Circle’s shares dropped over 17% after a major group backed by Stripe, Coinbase, BlackRock, Mastercard, and Visa launched Open USD, a new stablecoin network meant to compete with USDC. The new network offers fee-free minting and redemption, shared governance, and reserve income for participating businesses.
These features directly challenge Circle’s business model. The announcement comes as competition heats up in the growing stablecoin market, with banks, payment firms, and fintech companies now focusing on controlling the digital payment infrastructure rather than just issuing tokens.
Circle’s stock closed below $63, its lowest since late February and about 55% below its mid-May peak. This drop shows investors are worried about growing competition in the stablecoin sector.
Introducing Open USD: a stablecoin built for the internet economy, designed by the businesses growing it.https://t.co/jqgDRs6mKf
— Open Standard (@openstandard) June 30, 2026
Open Standard, an independent company, is developing the new network. Its founding partners include major names in finance, payments, and crypto. Besides Stripe, Coinbase, and BlackRock, the group also includes Mastercard, Visa, and over 140 other businesses from banking, fintech, and blockchain.
Zach Abrams, co-founder of Bridge (a stablecoin infrastructure company bought by Stripe in 2024), leads the initiative. Abrams said businesses now need stablecoins that are open, affordable, scalable, and built to serve users’ interests instead of just one issuer.
Unlike traditional stablecoins, Open USD will allow participating businesses to mint and redeem tokens without paying fees. More importantly, reserve income generated from investments in short-term U.S. Treasuries will be shared with partners after management costs. This differs significantly from the existing model, where issuers such as Circle retain most of the interest income earned on reserves.
This approach is similar to the Paxos-led Global Dollar Network (USDG), which also shares reserve earnings with its partners to encourage more adoption.
The timing matters. Stablecoins were once mainly for crypto trading, but now they are used more for international payments, merchant settlements, and corporate treasury operations. The market is already over $300 billion, and Citi expects it could reach $4 trillion by 2030.
Even with investor worries, Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire welcomed the new competition. He said the stablecoin industry is one of the world’s biggest financial opportunities as online payment systems keep evolving. Allaire added that Circle is focused on improving its technology, growing partnerships, and supporting more institutional use of USDC.
Open USD brings a new competitive model, and the race for stablecoin leadership is moving into a phase where infrastructure, incentives, and partnerships could be as important as the tokens themselves.
LATEST: 📊 Circle’s stock fell more than 15% after more than 140 companies, including Coinbase and Visa, announced a rival stablecoin called Open USD. pic.twitter.com/JOZHXahmDn
— CoinMarketCap (@CoinMarketCap) July 1, 2026
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