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Open USD had barely been announced before the cracks started showing. Dunamu, the operator of South Korea’s dominant crypto exchange Upbit, has confirmed it is not participating in the issuance of OUSD, the new stablecoin unveiled by the Open Standard consortium on June 30. The clarification follows a similar distancing move by Samsung Electronics, suggesting that the consortium’s claimed roster of over 140 partners may be more aspirational than actual.
What Open USD promised, and who’s actually on board
Open Standard introduced OUSD as a dollar-pegged stablecoin with a genuinely novel pitch. Zero fees for minting or redemption. No artificial caps on supply. Revenue from reserve yields shared with distribution partners. And instead of a single corporate issuer calling the shots, collective governance by a broad consortium.
The partner list read like a who’s-who of global finance and tech: Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, BlackRock, Coinbase, Google, and Ripple, among others. South Korean heavyweights Samsung Electronics and Dunamu were also listed among the initial collaborators.
Samsung was among the first to pump the brakes, clarifying its limited involvement. Dunamu followed suit, stating plainly that Upbit “is not participating in the issuance of the stablecoin.”
The Samsung-Dunamu connection adds a layer
Samsung affiliates acquired a 4% stake in Dunamu for approximately $408 million in May 2026, making the two companies financially intertwined. When both independently distance themselves from the same project within days of its announcement, that’s a coordinated signal, not a coincidence.
Circle is already feeling the heat
Even with questions swirling about the actual depth of its partner commitments, OUSD’s announcement landed a direct hit on Circle, the issuer of USDC. Shares of Circle fell as much as 18% following the consortium’s reveal.
If OUSD delivers on zero-fee minting and redemption with revenue sharing for partners, it undercuts a core part of Circle’s business model. Stablecoin issuers make money on the spread between what they earn on reserves (typically US Treasuries and equivalent instruments) and what they pay out to partners. A consortium willing to share that yield more generously, while charging nothing for basic operations, threatens to commoditize the entire stablecoin issuance business.
What investors should actually watch
The Upbit and Samsung clarifications are early warning signs that deserve attention from anyone positioning around the stablecoin sector. If marquee names are already qualifying their involvement before launch, the 140-partner number starts to look more like a vanity metric.
Coinbase, which earns significant revenue from USDC-related activities, is listed as an OUSD partner. If Coinbase genuinely shifts support toward OUSD, that could accelerate USDC’s competitive challenges.
The most important thing to monitor over the coming months is which of the 140 claimed partners actually show up when OUSD moves from announcement to implementation later in 2026. Upbit and Samsung have already shown that being on the list and being in the game are very different things.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
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