Plasma has emerged as one of the founding infrastructure partners behind Open USD, a newly announced stablecoin initiative that aims to expand the use of digital dollars in global business payments by combining blockchain infrastructure with established financial networks.
The initiative brings together major payment companies, including Visa, Mastercard and American Express, alongside blockchain infrastructure providers to address technical and operational barriers that have slowed enterprise adoption of stablecoins.
As a founding chain member and early distributor, Plasma will provide the blockchain infrastructure designed to enable stablecoin transactions with faster settlement, lower costs and greater reliability. The company said its technology is intended to support businesses and financial institutions using digital dollars for cross-border and internet-based payments.
Under the Open USD model, businesses will be able to mint and redeem the stablecoin without fees or volume restrictions. Participants will also be eligible to receive revenue generated from the reserves backing the stablecoin, introducing an incentive structure intended to encourage broader commercial adoption.
Infrastructure Becomes the Next Competitive Layer
The announcement reflects a broader shift in the stablecoin market. While early development focused primarily on issuing digital assets, the industry is increasingly competing on payment infrastructure, settlement efficiency and institutional interoperability.
By bringing together established card networks, payment processors, banks and blockchain providers, Open USD seeks to create a common infrastructure capable of supporting enterprise-scale digital dollar transactions rather than isolated crypto-native payment systems.
Zaheer Ebtikar, Chief Strategy Officer at Plasma, said fragmented infrastructure and slow, expensive settlement have limited the practical use of stablecoins for businesses. He said the collaboration connects institutions that already move money globally with companies developing stablecoin infrastructure, creating a more integrated foundation for issuing and using digital dollars across payment networks.
Expansion Follows Launch of Plasma One
The Open USD partnership comes only weeks after Plasma introduced Plasma One, its stablecoin-focused neobank.
Together, the two launches signal that the company is expanding beyond blockchain infrastructure into financial products built around stablecoins. The strategy positions Plasma across multiple layers of the emerging digital dollar ecosystem, spanning issuance, payment infrastructure and user-facing financial services.
Why It Matters
Stablecoins have become one of the fastest-growing segments of digital finance, but large-scale commercial adoption has remained constrained by fragmented infrastructure, settlement delays and inconsistent interoperability between traditional financial institutions and blockchain networks.
The participation of established global payment companies alongside blockchain infrastructure providers suggests the next stage of stablecoin development may depend less on creating new digital assets than on integrating them into existing payment rails used by businesses worldwide.
