Open USD (OUSD) is live: can the EU use it?

Open USD (OUSD) went live on 30 September 2026: a dollar stablecoin issued by Bridge (owned by Stripe), with Coinbase, Mastercard, Shopify, Stripe and Visa as its founders. It is aimed at businesses. For users in the EU, MiCA applies: a dollar stablecoin may only be offered here with its own white paper per token in the ESMA register.

What exactly is Open USD?

OUSD is a stablecoin pegged 1:1 to the US dollar. The project comes from Open Standard, a company founded by Coinbase, Mastercard, Shopify, Stripe and Visa. Together, the five have committed more than $1 billion (about €891 million) in launch liquidity.

How many companies are on board depends on the source: Open Standard speaks of more than 200 partners, Bloomberg of more than 100 and American Banker of more than 140. They include banks such as BNY and U.S. Bank.

The token runs on four blockchains: Ethereum, Base (Coinbase’s own), Solana and Tempo (a new blockchain backed by Stripe).

Who issues OUSD?

The issuer is Bridge Building Inc., the stablecoin company Stripe acquired. Open Standard is the brand and the network; Bridge mints the tokens and manages the reserve. That is worth bearing in mind: the consortium is broad, but issuance sits with a single company within a single group.

Who supervises OUSD in the US?

In the US, Bridge Building Inc. operates as a money transmitter under state licences (NMLS number 2450917). On 12 February 2026, the US banking regulator, the OCC, granted Bridge conditional approval to set up a national trust bank, Bridge National Trust Bank.

That bank is not yet operational. Bridge itself states that the conditional approval is not a final charter and does not allow it to issue OUSD under the GENIUS Act, the US stablecoin law of July 2025. In short: the federal banking supervision OUSD is working towards is not yet in place.

How does the reserve work, and who earns from it?

Every OUSD has to be matched by a dollar. According to Open Standard, the reserves are held with BlackRock, Lead Bank and BNY. Monthly attestations have been announced: checks by an outside party confirming that the reserve is there.

The difference from USDC and USDT lies in who receives the interest on that reserve. With most stablecoins, the issuer keeps the yield on the government bonds. With OUSD, it goes to the companies in the network, in proportion to how much OUSD they put into circulation and how many transactions they drive. Partners also receive equity in Open Standard.

An important point for retail users: that reward is for partner companies that hold their balance with Bridge. If you hold OUSD in your own wallet, you receive no interest from the issuer.

Who can mint and redeem OUSD?

Only businesses, through four routes: Stripe, Visa’s Stablecoin Platform, BVNK (owned by Mastercard) and Coinbase (since 1 October). Minting and redeeming for dollars is 1:1 and free of charge. Open Standard earns a small transaction fee.

Retail users get hold of it by trading. At launch, several sources named Coinbase, Kraken and the decentralised exchange Uniswap as trading venues. Whether that also applies to customers in the EU depends on the exchange’s EU entity (see below).

Can you use OUSD in the EU?

This is where a company holding an authorisation differs from a token that may be offered.

Under MiCA, a stablecoin pegged to a single fiat currency is an e-money token (EMT). Such a token may only be offered to the public or admitted to trading in the EU if:

1. the issuer is a credit institution or electronic money institution authorised in the EU, and
2. a white paper for that specific token has been notified to the competent authority and published (Article 48 MiCA).

ESMA required crypto platforms in the EU (CASPs) to stop offering stablecoins that do not meet these requirements by the end of March 2025 at the latest. Since then, the stablecoins available to EU customers have differed from those available elsewhere.

What does the ESMA register say about Bridge?

Bridge has a European subsidiary: Bridge Building S.A. in Luxembourg, supervised by the CSSF. In the ESMA register (as at 30 September 2026), this company appears twice:

• As a crypto-asset service provider (CASP), since 29 June 2026, for services including custody, exchange for funds and transfers, passported to 29 countries.
• As an issuer of e-money tokens, since 23 July 2026, with one white paper: for EURR, the euro stablecoin Bridge issues for Revolut.

So Bridge may issue e-money tokens in the EU. Whether OUSD may be offered in the EU depends on a separate white paper for OUSD. You can check this yourself: open ESMA’s EMT register and search for ‘Bridge Building S.A.’ and ‘OUSD’. The register is updated weekly. Our MiCA page explains how to run this check.

What should you check before accepting or buying OUSD?

• The token: is there an OUSD white paper in ESMA’s EMT register?
• The platform: does the exchange or app hold a MiCA authorisation? You can check this in our overview of MiCA authorisations.
• The entity: are you buying from the exchange’s EU entity or from a branch outside the EU? Only the EU entity falls under MiCA.
• The blockchain: only send OUSD over a network supported by both the sender and the recipient. A transfer over the wrong network can be lost.

How does OUSD compare with USDC and EURC?

Two Circle stablecoins are listed as e-money tokens in the ESMA register: USDC (dollar) and EURC (euro). Both are issued in the EU by Circle Internet Financial Europe SAS in France.

The last row is no coincidence: Article 50 of MiCA prohibits issuers and crypto platforms from granting interest on e-money tokens. That applies to every EMT offered in the EU.

For a euro user, there is one more difference. OUSD and USDC are dollars: if the dollar falls against the euro, your balance in euros falls with it. On 2 October 2026, the ECB reference rate stood at 1 euro = 1.1225 dollars. EURC carries no such exchange-rate risk. For how euro stablecoins have developed since MiCA, read Stablecoins under MiCA: euro stablecoins are becoming the norm.

What are the risks?

• The yield does not go to you. The model rewards companies that distribute OUSD. As a retail holder, you get no share of it.
• Federal supervision is not settled. The OCC approval for Bridge National Trust Bank is conditional; there is no fixed timeline for the final charter.
• A single issuer. Open Standard has five founders with equal stakes, but issuance and the reserve sit with Bridge, which belongs to Stripe.
• New infrastructure. Tempo is a new blockchain. A new chain has less of a track record than Ethereum or Solana.
• Attestations are still to come. The monthly reserve checks have been announced; at launch, there was no series yet to look back on.

Who is OUSD not meant for?

Retail users in the EU looking for a stablecoin to save in or pay with in euros. OUSD is built for businesses that move dollars across borders: payment providers, payroll processors, banks. If you want to use a stablecoin in the EU on a MiCA-authorised platform, start with the tokens already in the ESMA register and a platform from our comparison overview.

We previously covered the Visa platform on which OUSD is the first token: Visa launches platform that lets banks issue stablecoins.

This article is for information only and is not investment or legal advice.

Frequently asked questions

Can I buy OUSD in the EU?

That depends on two things: whether there is an OUSD white paper in ESMA’s EMT register, and whether the exchange you want to buy from offers OUSD through its EU entity. The issuer, Bridge, holds an EU authorisation in Luxembourg as an electronic money institution and as a crypto-asset service provider. In the register as at 30 September 2026, Bridge has one white paper, for the euro stablecoin EURR.

Do I earn interest if I hold OUSD?

No. The yield on the reserve goes to partner companies in the Open Standard network. In the EU, Article 50 of MiCA also prohibits issuers and crypto platforms from granting interest on e-money tokens.

What is the difference between OUSD and USDC?

Both are dollar stablecoins. USDC is issued in the EU by Circle Internet Financial Europe SAS and is listed as an e-money token in the ESMA register. With OUSD, the yield on the reserve goes to the companies that distribute OUSD, not to the issuer.

Who holds the dollars behind OUSD?

According to Open Standard, the reserves are held with BlackRock, Lead Bank and BNY. The issuer, Bridge, has announced monthly attestations by an outside party.

Which blockchains is OUSD available on?

Ethereum, Base, Solana and Tempo.

Sources: Bridge: OUSD is live, issued by Bridge, CoinDesk, The Paypers, American Banker, Unchained, Payments Dive, ESMA interim MiCA register (EMT issuers and CASPs, as at 30/09/2026), ESMA and the European Commission on non-compliant stablecoins, MiCA Regulation (EU) 2023/1114, Blockhead on EURR, ECB reference rate via Frankfurter.

Last checked: 2 October 2026