The governance entity behind OpenUSD will charge 0.1 basis points per payment, capped at $0.01, and offer partners equity tied to holdings and payment flows

Tue 3 Nov 2026 · 15:01 EST · 3 min read

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Open Standard, the governance entity behind the OpenUSD (OUSD) stablecoin, has put a price on moving money through its network. The answer is 0.1 basis points on payment volume, capped at $0.01 per transaction.

It is also offering something most stablecoin issuers never have: a slice of the company. Partners can earn equity based on their OUSD holdings and payment flows, according to private documents seen by CoinDesk.

How the fee and the equity pool work

Start with the fee. Open Standard will take 0.1 basis points, or 0.001%, on payment transaction volume. The charge tops out at $0.01 per transaction.

The math gets simple quickly. Any payment over $1,000 pays the full one-cent cap, while smaller payments pay in proportion to their size.

That fee is how revenue reaches Open Standard. The yield earned on OUSD reserves then gets passed along to partners, minus the management fee.

That structure is the real headline. Tether and Circle, the issuers behind USDT and USDC, primarily keep the interest income from their reserves for themselves.

OUSD flips the arrangement. The reserve yield goes to the partners, and Open Standard lives on a toll that rounds to almost nothing.

Then there is the equity earn-in pool. To qualify, a partner needs to hold at least $50 million in OUSD.

Ownership through the pool is capped at 5% per partner. That ceiling looks designed to stop any single firm from buying its way into control of the governance entity.

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The documents did not arrive alone. Alongside the fee and earning pool materials, Visa released more than 100 pages of technical implementation and user guidance for partner firms.

A stablecoin built by the payments establishment

OUSD launched on September 30, 2026. It went live across four networks at once: Ethereum, Solana, Base, and Tempo.

The founding roster reads like a who’s who of payments. Stripe, Visa, Mastercard, Coinbase, and Shopify each committed over $1 billion for launch liquidity.

The partner network has since grown past 200 members.

What this means for the stablecoin market

The stablecoin business has long run on a straightforward model. Users hand over dollars, the issuer parks them in reserves, and the issuer pockets the interest.

OUSD is betting that the businesses actually moving the money would rather keep that yield themselves.

The equity pool adds a second layer of incentive. A partner that routes significant payment flow through OUSD is not just a customer, it becomes a part-owner with a reason to keep that flow coming.

The $50 million entry threshold shapes who benefits, though. It is a figure large institutions can clear easily, while smaller fintechs and merchants may find the equity pool out of reach.

So the structure appears built for big players first. Smaller participants still get the low fee and access to the rails, but ownership is reserved for those who can commit serious capital.

There is also a revenue question for Open Standard itself. A fee capped at one cent per payment means the entity needs enormous transaction counts to fund its operations, rather than relying on large individual transfers.

For partners weighing whether to commit, the key variables to watch are the level of reserve yield actually distributed, how quickly firms clear the $50 million bar, and how the 5% ownership cap shapes governance as the pool fills.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Kaye Quema. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.

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