Company
Stablecoin payments firm acquired by Mastercard for $1.8bn.
Mastercard CEO Michael Miebach said Oct. 9 that cross-border payments are stablecoins' strongest use, citing OUSD, a coin Visa and Stripe also back. His biggest stablecoin deal, up to $1.8 billion for BVNK per Crypto Briefing, buys tools to hold and convert whichever coin businesses pick.
Reality
Visa and Mastercard took equal stakes with Coinbase, Stripe and Shopify in OUSD, a stablecoin the five founders back with over $1 billion. Its zero fees cover minting and redemption only, and the networks also back rival stablecoins, so the stake is one bet among several.
Reality
Open USD launched with Stripe distribution and $468 million of backed supply, about 0.15% of a dollar-stablecoin market led by USDT and USDC. Its share grows only if Stripe customers move payments and treasury balances into it beyond the liquidity its founders seeded.
Perspective Coverage
9 publishersReality
Stripe-owned Bridge is issuing the OUSD stablecoin on four blockchains, with reserves held at BlackRock, Lead Bank and BNY. Open Standard has not said how much has been issued, so its list of more than 200 partner businesses is the only size figure on record.
Reality
Open Standard's OUSD stablecoin launched Sept. 30 with over $1 billion from Coinbase, Mastercard, Shopify, Stripe and Visa. Because partners collect most of the reserve yield, the payment firms that distribute stablecoins now have a revenue reason to push this one.
Reality
BVNK processed more than $30 billion of stablecoin transactions last year and now plugs into Marqeta's issuing platform, where the card rails stay as they are and the currency conversion happens out of the cardholder's sight.
Reality
Late-stage funding fell 45% to $830mn while seed cash almost doubled. For a company past proof-of-concept, that is a plan for a buyer or a longer runway, not a growth round.
Reality