OUSD Consortium: Samsung and Dunamu deny their involvement in the stablecoin project
A new wave of competition is brewing in the stablecoin market, and the ambitious Open USD (OUSD) project has already sparked mixed reactions. The global alliance Open Standard, behind the issuance of OUSD, announced it has attracted around 140 global financial and payment giants, including Google, Visa, Mastercard, BlackRock, as well as major South Korean corporations. However, key Korean players, including Samsung Electronics and Dunamu, have been quick to distance themselves from this announcement.
Korean Giants Perplexed
According to Open Standard's public list, the consortium includes Korean companies such as Samsung Electronics, Dunamu (operator of the Upbit exchange), Shinhan Financial Group, KakaoBank, K Bank, and several others. However, representatives of these entities stated that the information about their participation came as a complete surprise. Samsung Electronics emphasized that they had not held official negotiations with the OUSD issuer and have no idea about the role attributed to them. Dunamu and Shinhan took a similar stance, noting that they had only given a non-binding response along the lines of "we will consider the possibility if the project is successful." Essentially, their inclusion in the participant list is a premature initiative by the alliance organizers, not a confirmed partnership.
OUSD Mechanics and the Challenge to Tether and Circle
The OUSD project itself is positioned as an open infrastructure collectively managed by companies that actually provide payment services. The issuance mechanism is similar to Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC): for every dollar deposited into the issuer's reserve account, 1 OUSD is issued. The key difference is the absence of transaction fees for consortium participants and a fundamentally different revenue distribution model. While Tether and Circle earn billions by investing user reserves in U.S. government debt, OUSD promises to distribute all income from reserve management among network partners, keeping only operational costs for itself.
The market reacted to the news with cautious optimism, seeing OUSD as a potential competitor capable of disrupting the USDT and USDC duopoly. However, the reaction from Korean companies shows that the actual consolidation of participants may be far from what was stated. For now, OUSD is more of a loud declaration of intent than a formed alliance.
My analysis: The situation resembles a classic "PR stunt": including big names in the list without their formal consent is a risky but effective strategy to attract attention. However, for long-term success, OUSD will need not just a list, but real commitments and integrations. For now, trust in the project has been undermined by the very fact of confusion over participants, which could slow its adoption in the market.