OpenUSD (OUSD), co-founded by Stripe, Visa, Mastercard, Coinbase, and Shopify, plans to cap its management fee at 1 cent per payment and share reserve income with its partners.
Private documents reviewed by CoinDesk revealed the fee and partnership model for the stablecoin introduced this year. Open Standard, the organization behind OUSD, will charge a management fee of 0.1 basis points on payment volume, or 0.001%, but the fee for any single payment will not exceed $0.01.
Same cap even on million-dollar payments
Under the model, payments of $1,000 or more hit the 1-cent management fee cap. Fees for smaller payments are calculated based on the amount. For example, the management fee on a $100 payment will be $0.001.
A proportional calculation would result in a $10 fee on a single $1 million payment, but the cap would bring that amount down to 1 cent. The documents define this limit as the management fee payable to Open Standard.
Open Standard aims to facilitate settlement for cross-border payments with OUSD and reduce the need to convert between traditional currencies.
Partners can earn both reserve income and equity
The other part of the plan involves sharing income generated by the reserves backing the stablecoin. OUSD’s reserve yield will be distributed to partners after the management fee is deducted. This is intended to encourage companies to maintain balances in the system and generate payment volume.
Open Standard is also creating an annual pool that gives partners the opportunity to earn equity in the project. Participation requires holding at least $50 million in OUSD. The amounts partners hold and transfer through the system will be measured monthly and used to determine their share of the pool.
Including all equity acquisition rights earned under this program, no single partner’s ownership stake can exceed 5%. The documents describe reserve income and equity incentives as a model for partner companies.
Five major companies commit launch liquidity
The documents state that Stripe, Visa, Mastercard, Coinbase, and Shopify have each committed more than $1 billion toward near-term launch liquidity.
Visa has also published technical implementation and usage guides spanning more than 100 pages for partner companies integrating OUSD through the Visa Stablecoin Platform. The fee cap, reserve yield sharing, and usage-based equity model make up the incentives the project is offering to bring payment companies together around the same stablecoin.
Not investment advice.