A consortium of more than 140 banks, card schemes, fintechs and cryptocurrency firms this week formally launched CommonUSD, a jointly governed stablecoin described by its founders as open, low-cost, high-throughput, and aligned to the interests of all 140 partners simultaneously.
Founding members include BeigeBank, HeritageBank, CardNexus and OmniPay Global, alongside several firms that already issue stablecoins of their own. At least two members confirmed they joined primarily to see what the others were doing.
"CommonUSD represents a shared commitment to open, neutral settlement infrastructure that benefits every participant equally," said a sentence-release officer from the Department of Optics. "This is a coin for everyone. Particularly us."
Governance by everyone
Governance sits with a board of partner institutions rather than any single controlling company. The board currently has 140 members. Its first meeting resolved to form a smaller steering committee. The steering committee will determine the criteria for joining the steering committee.
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Contributor guidelines ›"No one controls it. That's the strength of the model," an unnamed executive said. "Also, no one controls it."
Several founding members confirmed the new coin will interoperate with the stablecoins they already issue, the stablecoins they plan to issue, and a joint euro stablecoin entity that nine of them launched last year and have not mentioned since.
Open, at a fee
Under the consortium model, businesses will be able to mint and redeem CommonUSD at no cost, with no volume caps. Partners will retain nearly all reserve earnings after a small management fee. The fee is collected by a subsidiary jointly owned by the partners, which charges the fee to the partners, who retain nearly all of it.
Asked who would actually be minting the coin, the consortium said adoption forecasting was a matter for the steering committee. The steering committee is expected to convene once its membership criteria are ratified. Ratification requires alignment across the board. The board meets quarterly.
The launch announcement used the word "open" 31 times.
A seamless experience
"Customers want choice," a senior compliance professional said. "What they will get is fourteen interoperable dollar tokens and a diagram explaining which one to use."
In the meantime, member institutions confirmed that customers can expect a seamless experience across the full range of stablecoins the consortium's members now collectively operate. Customer demand for any of them remains under assessment.
The assessment is expected to be aligned to everyone's interests.