Circle Internet Group Has a Brand-New Stablecoin Rival. What Does That Mean For Circle Stock?

A coalition of 140+ major companies including Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, BlackRock, Coinbase, Google, and Shopify launched Open USD (OUSD), a competing stablecoin that threatens Circle's USDC business model. OUSD offers decentralized governance, shared reserve income, zero-cost minting, and no volume limits, making it more attractive to institutional users. Circle's stock initially dropped on the announcement, and the threat intensifies if Coinbase—a key USDC partner—switches to OUSD when its revenue-sharing agreement expires in August.