Circle stock tumbles after BlackRock-backed consortium unveils revenue-sharing stablecoin
Circle Internet Financial’s shares plunged more than 17% Tuesday after a well-funded consortium — including BlackRock, Google, Visa, Coinbase and more than 140 other companies — launched a competing revenue-sharing stablecoin called Open USD (OUSD).
Market reaction
- Circle closed at $62.65, down 17.52% from the prior session, after trading as low as $62.52 intraday. The stock opened at $72.25 and bled value through the day.
- Trading volume surged to roughly 34.5 million shares, well above Circle’s average daily volume of about 14 million, as investors digested the new entrant.
What Open USD is offering
Open USD is being developed by Open Standard, an industry initiative led by Bridge co‑founder Zach Abrams and backed by a broad coalition of financial and technology firms. Its key differences from traditional issuer-led stablecoins:
- Fee-free minting and redemption for users.
- Most reserve income is distributed to participating ecosystem members rather than accruing solely to an issuer.
- Governance is handled by an independent, partner-led organization rather than a single company.
That revenue-sharing model directly challenges a core element of Circle’s business: the ability of stablecoin issuers to capture reserve yield. The design resembles Paxos’ Global Dollar Network, which also shares reserve revenue with partners. Open USD arrives as stablecoins increasingly move beyond crypto trading into cross-border payments, merchant settlement and corporate treasury services — arenas where institutional partners and payment firms are crucial.
Circle’s response
Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire downplayed the threat, arguing the market can support multiple successful issuers and that USDC will keep expanding its institutional network. Allaire said Circle will continue adding banking, payments and capital markets partners and investing in cross‑chain interoperability. “USDC remains the most trusted, widely adopted, institutional-ready stablecoin in the world, and we count thousands of institutions as partners in our ecosystem across nearly every major sector,” he added, noting plans to deepen integration with banks and payments firms and expand partner economic opportunities.
Why this matters
The launch of Open USD — backed by some of the largest names in finance and tech — introduces a well-funded rival at a time when institutional interest in dollar-backed tokens is rising. Investors are watching to see whether revenue-sharing models will reshape competition for institutional adoption and payments market share in the fast-growing stablecoin landscape.
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