Today we’re sharing an update on Open Standard’s company structure and leadership team.
Our mission is to build internet-native money. We believe all businesses should be able to use stablecoins as easily as they use fiat, benefiting from superinfrastructure that’s cheaper, faster, more global, and more programmable. Our stablecoin, Open USD (OUSD), is purpose-built for use cases across banking, cross-border payments, settlement, institutional trading, and more.
To serve the collective interests of businesses building financial services at scale, Open Standard will be governed by a board of directors representing its shareholders. This structure is designed to give the partners driving the most growth and adoption of OUSD a meaningful role in shaping the company’s direction.
How we’re structuring Open Standard
- Coinbase, Mastercard, Shopify, Stripe, and Visa will join as the initial founding partners of Open Standard. Each founding partner is investing in the company and helping establish OUSD supply, delivering $1B+ in near term launch liquidity. We anticipate adding a limited number of additional founding partners soon.
- Once OUSD is live, all founders and participating partners will have the opportunity to earn equity based on the supply and activity they drive on their platforms. Over time, Open Standard will establish a board of directors drawn from its founders and representing its shareholders.
In addition, Zach Abrams will join as the company’s full-time CEO. Zach led product teams at top fintechs including Square, Coinbase, and Brex before founding Bridge, a stablecoin orchestration and issuance platform. For the past several months, Zach has been leading both Bridge and Open Standard; he will now transition to focus solely on Open Standard.
Hear from our founding partners
Coinbase:
“Stablecoins enable payments for the internet age. As the network and technology continue to grow, our goal is to give our customers and business partners access to the best options available on trusted infrastructure. Coinbase is excited to be one of Open Standard's first founding partners as we work together to build the rails businesses will rely on in the internet economy.” — Shan Aggarwal, Chief Business Officer and Head of Investor Relations
Mastercard:
“Businesses want choice in how they pay, get paid, and move value globally. Open USD helps expand those options, and Mastercard will help connect it to the trusted capabilities, partners and wallets that customers need to put stablecoins to work in the real economy.” — Jorn Lambert, Chief Product Officer
Shopify:
“Open Standard brings together partners who will put Open USD to work and help determine how it evolves. That shared responsibility matters when building infrastructure meant to serve businesses at scale. Shopify is committing early as a founding partner so the needs of commerce—and the merchants powering it—are represented as this new infrastructure takes shape.” — Rohit Mishra, VP Product, Payments, Tax, and Cross-Border
Stripe:
“Businesses need a stablecoin designed for payments at a global, industrial scale. Open Standard’s founding team brings together some of the leading companies in the world with experience operating financial infrastructure at that scale. I couldn’t be more excited to work alongside them to make Open USD the default for global money management on Stripe and beyond.” — Will Gaybrick, President, Technology and Business
Visa:
“The adoption of on-chain money and payments will hinge on trust and interoperability. At Visa we see it as our job to deliver trust, confidence and seamless connections, and we are excited to be a founding member of Open Standard, an initiative bringing together partners who share our commitment to trust and open interoperability. We look forward to working together to create and scale a new choice for trusted on-chain infrastructure.” — Jack Forestell, Chief Product and Strategy Officer
We have the opportunity to bring true internet-native money to businesses around the world, enabling them to create better experiences and products for the global economy. There’s exciting work ahead, and we look forward to building with all of our partners.
