Circle slides 8% as Stripe, Coinbase and BlackRock back rival stablecoin network
CoinDesk 2026-06-30 14:32:33
Context: Circle's shares fell as much as 8% after a consortium of more than 140 companies, including Stripe, Coinbase, Mastercard, Visa, and BlackRock, unveiled Open USD, a new stablecoin designed to challenge incumbents such as Circle's USDC. The new digital dollar, launched by Open Standard, aims to let partners keep reserve income and eliminate minting fees, striking at one of the key economics of today's stablecoin issuers. This development comes as stablecoins move further into mainstream finance, with the market projected to grow to $4 trillion by 2030.
Key Facts
- Circle's shares were lower by 8% in Tuesday morning trading after the consortium backed by some of the biggest names in payments, banking, and crypto unveiled Open USD.
- The new stablecoin, Open USD, will allow businesses to mint and redeem tokens without fees while returning reserve income to participating partners, less a management fee.
- Open USD's launch partners include Stripe, Coinbase, Mastercard, Visa, BNY, Standard Chartered, DBS, U.S. Bank, Shopify, Google, IBM, Mercado Pago, Fireblocks, Anchorage Digital, MetaMask, Aave, Solana, Polygon, and Ripple.
- The market for stablecoins has grown to more than $300 billion and is projected to grow to $4 trillion by 2030, attracting banks, payment companies, and fintech firms eager to issue their own digital dollars.
- Unlike most existing stablecoins, Open USD will distribute the yield generated on U.S. Treasuries in reserve to participating businesses, rather than retaining most of the interest generated by those assets.