支付、处理器与IT服务：快速概览：V/MA、Stripe、Amex、Coinbase、Google及100多家金融科技合作伙伴推出Open USD

Quick Take: V/MA, Stripe, Amex, Coinbase, Google and 100+ fins/tech partners' launch Open USD This morning, the global networks (V, MA, Amex), Stripe, Coinbase, Blackrock, Google,Shopify, US Bank, BBVA, Standard Chartered, Adyen and 100+ other partners launchedOpen Standard to issue Open USD, a stablecoin designed for the financial system and theinternet economy. Open USD will launch later this year. While the release included the who’swho of commerce and financial services, notable ‘absents’ were the large US banks (JPM,Bank of America, Citi), PayPal, Block - and not surprisingly larger incumbent stablecoin Harshita Rawat, CFA+1 917 344 8485harshita.rawat@bernsteinsg.com Simran Ratani+1 917 344 8329simran.ratani@bernsteinsg.com Viola Chen+1 917 344 8614viola.chen@bernsteinsg.com This is about control of the reserve economics, governance and scalability.A keysticking point with the existing stablecoin infrastructure - float economics are currentlymostly concentrated with the Stablecoin issuers. Open USD’s blog post repeatedlyemphasized that “companies aren’t always able to benefit from the revenues earned onthe underlying reserves”. In addition, fees to mint/redeem stablecoins are expensive atlarger companies. Open USD’s mission is to have an infrastructure built for scale with We have long believed that lack of regulatory clarity around stablecoins was not abottleneck for the crypto ecosystem moving mainstream but rather was a huge impedimentfor the traditional financial services ecosystem adopting stablecoins.Since the passageof the GENIUS Act a year ago, we have seen growing chessboard moves by fintechse.g., Stripe’s acquisitions of Bridge/Privy and launch of stablecoin products (includingOpen Issuance), Visa’s product/platform launches (stablecoin settlement, VTAP, advisorypractice, Validator role in certain blockchains), Mastercard (BVNK acquisition, Multi-Token Separately, there is a lot of experimentation happening around stablecoin usagein cross-border remittances/B2B, agentic commerce and treasury management.Stablecoins could help modernize the existing financial systems’ settlement rails. While thedominant current use-case is around crypto capital markets (by a huge margin), stablecoins Current bottlenecks are integration with existent processes, expensive on/off ramps,lack of broad adoption (money movement is a network business), unclear monetization(and share of reserve economics), lack of coherent support from incumbents, and unclear [continued on the following page] For us, the biggest thing to watch is around how the governance will work acrosssuch a large partner ecosystem(many of whom will have competing interests). Thereare then questions around who will issue and distribute the Open USD, how is revenueshare determined, whether partners are deeply involved (or merely in the press release),and whether this ends up just being a ‘negotiating’ tool to garner attractive economics fromexisting stablecoin issuers.It’s early days, success is not guaranteed (especially for For card networks (V, MA), in the near to medium-term, we continue to believethat Stablecoins offer new opportunities to make money (and NOT lose volumes)and strategically enhance their networks (e.g. through faster settlement, fiat/stablecoinconversion capabilities). Visa and Mastercard have >150 stablecoin/crypto linked cardprograms and both networks are monetizing stablecoins today. We are closely watchingMastercard’s BVNK acquisition and the potential for greater role in orchestration and on/off Stripe is interesting to watch here and is uniquely positioned as both a governanceparticipant and the operational backbone of Open USD: Zach Abrams, Bridge CEO(company acquired by Stripe), is Open Standard's founding CEO, and Stripe has publiclycommitted to making this "thedefault stablecoin for businesses running on Stripe".Stripe now has a complete stablecoin stack(orchestration, issuance, blockchain, Google being a partner is interesting and hints at future ‘agentic’ use-cases.WhileAgentic Commerce is still in its early days (see our note), it is undergoing a lot of naturalexperimentation - as is typical with any new commerce construct. We continue to believethat for the foreseeable future, cards will remain the dominant way to pay in agenticcommerce use-cases (because of the value proposition cards bring around trust, consumerprotections, controls, fraud mitigation, conversion and acceptance). Stablecoins, however,may have greater utility in the internet native agent-to-agent micropayments (e.g., agents Taking a step back, Open USD represents one of the most ambitious attempts yet tobring stablecoins into the mainstream financial systemby bringing together paymentnetworks, fintechs, PSPs, financial institutions, and tech platforms. More than the launchof a new stablecoin, it is an effort to build a shared industry standard around issuance,governance, and reserve economics. Whether Open USD ultimately succeeds or not