Visa and BlackRock Are Now Starting to Take Aim at USDC’s Business

Circle’s stock price vanished—down 17.55% in a single day.

All because of one piece of news.

More than 140 top global institutions teamed up and launched a stablecoin together.

Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, BlackRock, Google, Coinbase—if you can name it, it’s on the list.

They named this stablecoin Open USD (OUSD).

I know what you’re thinking—another stablecoin, so what?

But this time, it’s truly different.

Over the past decade, there have been at least eighty stablecoins challenging USDT and USDC. GUSD, FDUSD, TUSD—every kind of algorithmic stablecoin and regional stablecoin. In the end, they all ran into the same reality: USDT monopolizes exchange liquidity, while USDC occupies the U.S. compliant entry point.

Network effects. You issue a hundred stablecoins—people still use USDC. What can you do?

But OUSD is playing a different game this time.

It’s not competing with you on compliance. It’s not competing with you on transparency—it's going straight for your business model.

Do you know how Circle and Tether make money?

It’s simple. You deposit $1, and they issue you 1 USDC. Then they take your $1 and buy U.S. Treasuries, earning 4%-5% annual interest—every cent goes straight into their own pockets.

The larger the stablecoin market cap, the more they earn. USDC’s current circulating supply is about $73.6 billion. Just by harvesting the interest rate spread, that’s billions of dollars in profit every year.

And OUSD says: this money won’t be shared with the issuer—it’ll be shared with partners.

Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, Coinbase—these distribution players help OUSD with distribution and settlement, and most of the interest generated from reserves is returned to them.

Free minting, free redemption, and no upper limit on issuance.

Think about it: if you’re Stripe—back then, you helped Circle push USDC, and the money was earned by Circle. Now OUSD says, “You help promote us—the money is yours.” Who would you pick?

That’s the real reason Circle’s stock fell 17.55% in a day.

Not panic. Just plain, well-calculated numbers.

A Macquarie analyst put it bluntly: Visa and Mastercard are no longer merely “channels supporting third-party stablecoins.” They’re now the masters of the stablecoin ecosystem.

When the channel becomes the master, the way the whole pie is sliced changes too.

But there’s another side to the story.

A William Blair analyst said the market is overreacting. ARK Invest’s head of research said OUSD is essentially like a “DAO of multiple competitors,” and governance efficiency could be a major problem.

140 competing companies sit together to make decisions—how efficient do you think that can be?

Circle’s Jeremy Allaire also fired back on X: “USDC remains the most trusted, most widely adopted, and the most institutionally mature stablecoin in the world.”

Tether’s Paolo Ardoino was even more direct—he simply posted: “Welcome OUSD, Player 2 has entered.”

Notice his wording—Player 2.

In Tether’s eyes, USDC is Player 1. OUSD? You’ll have to beat USDC first.

So what does any of this mean for retail investors?

First, the stablecoin track has finally started to heat up.

In the past, USDT and USDC were a duopoly—there wasn’t much choice for you. Now 140 giants are entering with real money. Competition is always good for users.

Second, don’t just obsess over “who is more stable.”

The future of stablecoins isn’t about who is more “transparent”—it’s about who can make the channel partners earn more. Whoever controls the channels controls the lifeline of stablecoins.

If OUSD can truly run a “revenue sharing” model, it isn’t stealing users from USDC—it’s stealing partners from USDC. And partners are the real moat of a stablecoin.

Third—and this is the most painful point:

You think stablecoins are infrastructure, but actually they’re a business. Whoever makes the money gets to call the shots.

Before, Circle and Tether made the money, so they called the shots.

Now Visa and BlackRock want to make money themselves—and the rules of the game are about to change.

If OUSD really goes live, will your stablecoin holdings keep being mostly USDC, or will you move part of them to OUSD?

Oh, and by the way—Coinbase is also one of OUSD’s partners. Guess whether it will quietly send OUSD more traffic on its own exchange?#Gate完成141只股票股息派发 #Strategy拟回购股票 $BTC #特朗普披露持有超1亿美元BTCETH $ETH $SOL