Several South Korean companies named as members of the Open USD alliance said they had not formally joined the project, according to a Chosun Biz report.
The report said some firms only held early contact with Open Standard, the group behind the planned U.S. dollar stablecoin OUSD, while others said they learned about their inclusion through local media.
Notably, the companies named in the report include Samsung Electronics, Dunamu, Shinhan Financial Group, KakaoBank, K Bank, Hyundai Card, KB Kookmin Card, BC Card, Hana Card, Samsung Card, Woori Card, NH Nonghyup Card and Hanwha.
Meanwhile, the report has placed fresh attention on how Open Standard described participation in the alliance after announcing a partner list that included global payment, finance, technology and crypto firms.
Korean firms question their OUSD status
Samsung Electronics told Chosun Biz that it had not held official discussions with Open Standard.
“There were no official consultations, and we do not know what role we will play in the consortium,” a company official said.
The statement showed doubt over whether Samsung had agreed to take part beyond being named in the wider OUSD list.
Dunamu, Shinhan Financial Group and K Bank also told the publication that Open Standard had asked whether they had interest in joining OUSD. They said they responded that they would review the matter, but did not treat that response as a formal agreement.
“We only learned about our inclusion in the OUSD alliance through domestic news,” one company representative said.
Another company official told Chosun Biz that its answer to Open Standard was only at the level of considering participation if the project moved forward well. The official said the firm felt confused after seeing its name listed as a consortium member. Those comments point to a gap between early interest checks and formal participation.
Open Standard announced OUSD with major names
As The Coin Headlines reported, Open Standard announced Open USD on June 30 as a U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin for business payments and settlement. The project was presented with more than 140 companies across payments, banking, crypto and technology, including Visa, Mastercard, BlackRock, Coinbase, Google and Stripe.
Open Standard said OUSD is expected to launch later this year and will first run natively on Solana. The group said businesses would be able to mint and redeem OUSD without fees or volume limits. It also described the project as an open network designed for companies that move money at scale.
The alliance is not structured as a decentralized autonomous organization or a shareholder-based venture, according to Chosun Biz. Instead, Open Standard has described the project as a network where partners can use OUSD for payments, remittances and settlement while sharing in the system’s reserve income.
OUSD model focuses on reserves and partner revenue
OUSD follows the basic stablecoin model of backing a digital token with U.S. dollar reserves. Open Standard says participating companies will be able to deposit U.S. dollars into a reserve account to mint OUSD, then return tokens to redeem the underlying dollars. Chosun Biz reported that consortium members can mint and redeem without fees or volume caps.
The project also proposes a different revenue setup from the largest stablecoin issuers. Tether and Circle earn income from assets that back USDT and USDC, including short-term U.S. government debt. Open Standard says OUSD will share reserve income with participating partners after taking a small management fee for operating costs.
As reported on Wednesday, Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire questioned whether OUSD’s free minting, free redemption and large consortium model can work at scale. He argued that stablecoin networks need deep liquidity, broad integrations and long-built market access. He also said USDC has spent years building those layers across exchanges, wallets, payment firms and other platforms.
OUSD scrutiny comes as stablecoin competition grows
The Korean company statements come days after OUSD drew market attention as a possible new rival to USDT and USDC. Some people in South Korea’s virtual asset industry believed the project could challenge the two leading stablecoins if the listed partners actively used the network.
The latest responses show that some Korean firms may not yet have made that level of commitment. They do not show that OUSD has lost all Korean support, but they do show that several named companies are separating early interest from official entry. The distinction matters because OUSD’s public pitch relies heavily on the size and reach of its partner network.
Moreover, as reported on Thursday, Standard Chartered also launched direct USDC access for institutional clients through its banking platform, giving Circle a bank-led path into stablecoin services. The stablecoin market had grown above $300 billion, while dollar-linked tokens made up most of the sector.
Open Standard has not yet launched OUSD for live use. Until the token goes live and partner roles become clear, the market will watch whether companies listed in the alliance confirm active participation, limit their role to review, or step back from the project.
