Open USD ties its five founders' future ownership to how much of the token they circulate

Abrams said the five would help establish liquidity over the coming months, and that a partner can meet its share by holding OUSD on its balance sheet, keeping tokens on blockchains or making markets ^[17]. Spread evenly, more than $1 billion ^[1] is at least $200 million a founder ^[1]. The sources do not say how the total divides by company. The founders also get no separate revenue entitlement; Abrams said they are paid for the supply they generate under the same framework open to every other partner ^[16].

Sharing the equity has not spread control of the token. Stripe-owned Bridge is the issuer ^[3]. Abrams rejected descriptions of Open Standard as a consortium run by hundreds of participants; management makes operating decisions, he said, while the smaller founding group holds ownership and governance roles ^[11]. What the five share is a cap table the company plans to hand out over the next four to five years according to contribution ^[14]. "The overwhelming majority of our cap table is going to be distributed back to founders and non-founders based on how they help grow the network," Abrams said ^[13]. On that description, the five equal starting stakes ^[2] will add up to a minority of the eventual cap table ^[3].

If the pledges become $1 billion of circulating tokens, each redeemable one-for-one ^[6], every percentage point of reserve yield is about $10 million a year ^[2]. Open Standard says it passes nearly all of that to the companies that drive adoption ^[5]. Abrams named banking, cross-border transfers, card settlement, institutional trading and lending as the markets he wants ^[20]. "We want to be the most useful stablecoin, the same way the U.S. dollar is useful," he said ^[21]. Stripe is pitching remittance and payroll companies, arguing that the variable fees to convert other stablecoins in and out of dollars make them expensive ^[22].

Over the coming months the pledges could become tokens moving through those markets. They could also sit as balance-sheet holdings and market-making inventory that count as supply but carry little payment volume. A third path runs through the founding group, which Abrams expects to grow to about 10 to 12 companies with a board drawn from the founders ^[12]. Newcomers joining on investment terms would dilute the first five before usage arrives.

I'd expect the balance-sheet path to dominate early. Holding tokens is the cheapest way for a payments company to meet a liquidity pledge, and partners that clear a minimum threshold earn equity on supply as well as on transaction activity ^[15]. The view is wrong if on-chain data shows most new OUSD leaving the founders' wallets and changing hands between businesses.