Stripe switches its default stablecoin to Open USD

Stripe has begun rolling out Open USD (OUSD) across its products and is now treating the Open Standard stablecoin as its default configuration for businesses that hold, move and spend digital dollars.

Support for OUSD has gone live across Stripe products. Stripe describes the token as built for global money movement at scale: businesses can now receive, hold, send and spend funds with Treasury, run a card programme with Issuing, and pay recipients in other countries with Global Payouts. They can also offer fiat-to-OUSD conversions through Crypto Onramp and accept OUSD through Payments.

A default, not a mandate

OUSD is now Stripe's default stablecoin configuration on Tempo, the chain built by Open Standard, while Stripe keeps supporting several other stablecoins across blockchains and says it will not require customers to convert existing balances. OUSD is available on Base, Ethereum, Solana and Tempo, and Stripe promises low transaction fees that stay predictable as volumes grow, with no minting or burning fees.

Rewards for holding OUSD on Stripe

Businesses that join Open Standard as partners can earn rewards based on OUSD activity, including balances held on Stripe, and membership is free. OUSD also plugs into Bridge's orchestration APIs for conversions between OUSD, fiat and other stablecoins, and into Privy for wallet support.

The token arrives with Open Standard's founding companies — Coinbase, Mastercard, Shopify, Stripe and Visa — behind it, alongside more than 200 network partners.

Our opinion

Stripe's real move here is not the token, it is the tilt of the table. A default is a nudge: merchants who never open the setting will settle in OUSD whether or not it is the cheapest rail on any given day, and the partner rewards give them a reason to leave balances parked inside Stripe's stack instead of sweeping them out. That is a loyalty scheme wearing infrastructure clothes, and it matters far more than the fee table.

The open question is whether “no minting or burning fees” survives contact with volume — every issuer has promised cheap settlement and then discovered that redemption is where the money is. Tempo being built by Open Standard, whose founding members include Stripe, explains the confidence; it also means the default is a decision Stripe can revisit whenever it likes, so businesses building on neutral rails should read their contracts rather than the announcement.