Business · Companies · 6 hrs ago
Brazil approves Visa, Mastercard and partners’ Open USD joint venture
Brazil’s competition regulator, Cade, approved a joint venture involving five major companies: Visa, Mastercard, Coinbase, Stripe and Shopify.
The group, called Open Standard, plans to create Open USD, a digital token designed to stay equal in value to the US dollar.
Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies backed by reserves in a traditional currency to help maintain that value.
Open USD is expected to work first on Ethereum, Solana, Base and Tempo, with more blockchain networks potentially added later.
The companies say the token will initially launch only in the United States, not Brazil.
Cade approved the venture without restrictions, saying it would not create overlapping businesses in Brazil or Latin America.
The companies expect to distribute Open USD through their own products, while continuing to support other stablecoins such as USDC.
Brazil’s antitrust authority approved without restrictions a joint venture involving Visa, Mastercard, Coinbase, Stripe and Shopify to create the Open USD stablecoin.
The venture is the Open Standard consortium, which aims to use the dollar-linked digital currency to settle transactions.
The notification says Open USD will initially launch only from the United States and will not be available in Brazil at this time.
Initial blockchain support is planned for Ethereum, Solana, Base and Tempo.
The companies say they will continue supporting and distributing third-party stablecoins.
- Who
- Brazil’s Administrative Council for Economic Defense (Cade) and the Open Standard founders: Visa, Mastercard, Coinbase, Stripe and Shopify.
- What
- Cade approved the joint venture to create the Open USD stablecoin without restrictions.
- When
- The approval was reported on October 14, 2026; the consortium was announced in June.
- Where
- Brazil; the stablecoin is planned to launch initially from the United States and will not be available in Brazil at this time.
- Why
- Open USD aims to connect blockchain networks, financial institutions and major payment platforms to settle transactions in digital currency.
This story does not have two clearly opposing sides.
The Open Standard initiative was announced, bringing together more than 140 companies that intend to use the stablecoin.
Cade’s approval of the joint venture was reported.
- Founders
- Visa, Mastercard, Coinbase, Stripe and Shopify
- Stablecoin
- Open USD, a dollar-linked digital currency
- Initial blockchains
- Ethereum, Solana, Base and Tempo
- Reserve banks named
- BlackRock, Lead Bank and BNY
- Brazil availability
- Not planned at this time
What people are saying
Thus, even in a restricted and conservative scenario, considering the possibility that OS [Open Standard] may obtain the relevant regulatory approvals to issue stablecoins in Brazil, the operation would not result in horizontal overlap at the national level, since the founding members’ share of local stablecoin issuance would be zero.
Once Open USD is available to customers, each of the applicants is expected to participate in OS as a distributor of Open USD, making it available to its customers through its own products and platforms, alongside other stablecoins that OS may eventually offer.