Circle Shares Drop Sharply as Major Tech and Finance Giants Launch Rival Stablecoin

Circle’s stock fell more than 12% Tuesday, hitting a four-month low after a coalition of over 140 companies introduced Open USD, a new stablecoin built to compete directly with USDC. The project comes from Open Standard, an independent venture whose founding members include Stripe, Coinbase, Mastercard, Visa and BlackRock. The effort is led by Zach Abrams, co-founder of Bridge, the stablecoin infrastructure firm acquired by Stripe in 2024.

A Different Economic Model

Unlike most stablecoins, Open USD will let partner businesses mint and redeem tokens without fees while sharing reserve income generated from underlying Treasury holdings, rather than allowing a single issuer to retain it. Governance will also be distributed among participating companies instead of centralized control.

Growing List of Industry Backers

Beyond its founding partners, Open USD includes major names such as BNY, Standard Chartered, Shopify, Google, Solana and Ripple, reflecting widespread interest as the stablecoin market continues expanding toward mainstream financial use.

Circle Responds to Competitive Pressure

Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire downplayed concerns, emphasizing the scale of opportunity in the broader stablecoin sector and stating the company remains focused on strengthening its own infrastructure amid rising competition.