A year ago at EthCC in Cannes, Robinhood stood on stage and promised its own chain. This week in London, almost to the day, Robinhood Chain went live on public mainnet.
It arrived with a full product drop:
Stock Tokens trading 24/7 in 120+ countries
commodity and FX perpetuals in Europe at up to 10x leverage
agentic crypto trading accounts (announced, not yet live)
and a ~7% USDG earn product
With its own chain, Stock Tokens, and a non-custodial wallet, Robinhood is now speedrunning its global expansion, and creating markets that never close.
So far, so bullish. But if you’re one for the details (which of course you are), you’ve likely already guessed that “Stock Tokens” is a bit of a euphemism.
Buyers get price exposure, not ownership. Legally, a Stock Token is a debt security issued by a Jersey entity that tracks the share. Or as Robinhood founder Tenev puts it, “not technically equity.”
Notably, the one market that can’t buy them is the one Robinhood was built in. U.S. persons are excluded. Several others, including the UK, Switzerland, Canada, and the UAE, face restrictions too.
None of that seems to be slowing the trend, though. From Coinbase to Kraken to OKX and Robinhood, everyone is converging on the same onchain product suite of tokenized equities, perps, yield, money markets and stablecoins, all running on an Ethereum Layer-2 they control.
What we’re watching now is how fast an ecosystem forms around Robinhood Chain and Stock Tokens in particular. Utility drives adoption, adoption drives revenue, and by owning both distribution and the underlying rails, Robinhood captures most of it.
In today’s Briefing:
Securitize debuts on the NYSE
140-company stablecoin consortium unveils OUSD
HIGH SIGNAL NEWS
Securitize debuts on the NYSE. The tokenization platform now trades under the ticker SECZ after shareholders approved its merger with Cantor Equity Partners II, valuing the company at around $1 billion. Alongside the listing, Securitize also tokenized its common stock directly on the Solana and Avalanche blockchains. 🔔
Ondo Finance debuts SEC-aligned tokenized stock model. Following the SEC staff’s statement on third-party tokenized securities in the U.S., Ondo launched blockchain-based versions of BlackRock’s S&P 500 ETF, among others. Unlike its existing tokenized stocks, which only offer synthetic price exposure, the new assets are issued in collaboration with Broadridge, giving token holders the same governance rights as investors who own the securities through traditional brokerage accounts. 🏦
Ethena announces collaboration with BlackRock. Ethena’s synthetic dollar USDe is being integrated into Aladdin, BlackRock’s portfolio and risk management system used by institutional investors managing more than $20 trillion in assets. As part of the collaboration, BlackRock’s tokenized money market fund BUIDL will become the primary reserve asset for Ethena’s white-label stablecoin offering. 🤝
Ethereum gets another non-profit to boost adoption. Backed by the two largest ETH treasury companies, Ethereum Institutional will focus on driving institutional adoption of the Ethereum network. Its launch comes two weeks after Ethlabs, another initiative with a similar mandate to increase real-world usage of Ethereum. ⛓
TOP STORY
Stripe-Backed "Open Standard" Consortium Unveils OUSD Stablecoin
A new stablecoin: On Tuesday, more than 140 businesses announced the formation of Open Standard, a consortium that plans to issue the Open USD (OUSD) stablecoin later this year. The group spans a wide range of tech and finance firms, including Stripe, Visa, Google, Coinbase, BlackRock, and Standard Chartered. It is headed by founding CEO Zach Abrams, who also remains CEO of Bridge, the stablecoin infrastructure platform acquired by Stripe in 2024.
Why it matters: Open Standard reflects a broader shift in how new entrants are moving into the stablecoin market. Instead of simply partnering with an existing issuer or launching their own stablecoin, more firms are now forming or joining consortia around shared issuance models. In Europe, Qivalis and Bancomat are among the most prominent recent examples. In the U.S., the Global Dollar Network has attracted more than 90 participants since launching in November 2024, while its USDG stablecoin has grown to around $3 billion in market cap. What sets Open Standard apart is the breadth and profile of the companies backing OUSD from day one.
How it works: Similar to the Global Dollar Network, the Open Standard presents its structure as an alternative to the stablecoin model used by dominant issuers such as Tether and Circle. It highlights three differences: free minting and redemption, shared reserve earnings, and more partner-led governance.
Revenue sharing: Partners will receive the earnings generated by Open USD’s reserves, minus a small management fee to cover Open Standard’s operating costs. This is the clearest departure from the traditional single-issuer model, where the issuer captures most of the reserve income and may share economics only through bilateral distribution agreements.
No mint and redeem fees: Participants will be able to mint and redeem Open USD at no cost and without volume limits. The aim is to make the stablecoin more viable for use cases where even small fees can become meaningful at high volumes.
Governance: Open USD will be operated by Open Standard, an independent company with a board made up of Open USD partners. This would give all partners a formal role in decisions around the network’s development, economics, and roadmap, rather than leaving those decisions solely with a single issuer.
Early innings: For now, public information beyond the announcement remains limited, especially on governance questions such as board composition and voting rights, as well as the issuance stack behind OUSD. When Blockstories reached out for more detail on these points, Stripe declined to comment.
Stripe's new darling: Despite the early stage, Stripe already said Open USD will become the default for businesses using stablecoins on its platform, effectively replacing Circle's USDC as the current go-to stablecoin on Stripe.
Circle in the crosshairs: Even though OUSD is only expected to launch later this year, Circle’s stock already reacted sharply to Open Standard’s launch, falling roughly 17% on the day. The move also prompted Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire to publish a long statement defending USDC’s position, arguing that its lead in distribution, liquidity, and licensing is not easily replicated. So far, however, that has done little to ease concerns that Circle’s competitive position may be weaker than previously assumed.
Luca Prosperi is co-founder and CEO of M0, a stablecoin infrastructure platform that allows firms to issue their own stablecoins and powers, for example, mUSD, the stablecoin of leading wallet provider MetaMask.
What does Open Standard’s broad partner list signal to the stablecoin market?
First, I don't think that the size of Open Standard’s partner list should be read as a prerequisite for success. In fact, the broader the list, the weaker the individual commitment may be.
Anchorage Digital, for example, already operates a competing white-label stablecoin issuance platform. That makes exclusivity around OUSD unlikely, and I expect the same to be true for several other participants.
I would therefore read the broad partner list mainly as a signal of dissatisfaction with the current stablecoin market structure. Anyone sitting on large stablecoin floats, or using stablecoins to move in and out of fiat at scale, has a clear incentive to weaken Circle’s pricing power and benefit from a more competitive landscape.
Coinbase’s position is particularly interesting in that context. As one of the largest beneficiaries of USDC’s current dominance, it has a lot to lose from a dismantling of Circle’s market position. Its participation in the Open Standard may therefore be less about abandoning Circle, and more about creating leverage ahead of its distribution-agreement negotiations later this summer.
Christian Catalini is a Research Scientist and the founder of the MIT Cryptoeconomics Lab. Previously, he served as Head Economist at Meta Fintech and Chief Economist of the Diem Association, the organization behind Meta’s ultimately discontinued digital money initiative.
If Open Standard succeeds, what would it mean for players like Circle?
It would make the life of pure-play issuers extremely difficult. I argued two years ago that issuance is a commodity, and I'm surprised the market is only absorbing that reality now. GENIUS only reinforces this point: once regulated stablecoins are treated as equivalent, the issuer’s role becomes much harder to defend as a standalone business model.
And I see no obvious path for Circle to sustainably move beyond pure-play issuance. It is already trying to monetize more of the economic activity around USDC, including through its payment network. But the more Circle pushes in this direction, the more it risks competing with the very partners it needs for distribution, potentially cannibalizing its core business.
That said, the fate of players like Circle is far from settled, because it hinges on whether Open Standard actually succeeds. To get there, it needs clearly independent leadership, as anything resembling a “Stripe dollar” would not be neutral enough for the broader market. It also needs governance that can coordinate competitors without creating antitrust concerns, while balancing small and large participants: control by a few would undermine trust, but too much decentralization would make it hard to act.
Bitpanda: Lead, Product Manager, Vienna 🇦🇹
Bybit: EMI Product Manager, Europe 🇪🇺
eToro: Product Manager, Crypto, Cyprus 🇨🇾
Ethena Foundation: Senior Loan Originator, Switzerland 🇨🇭
Google Cloud: Solutions Architect, Web3 and Digital Assets, Frankfurt 🇩🇪
Ledger: Platform Engineering Director, Paris 🇫🇷
OKX: Head of Strategic Institutions, London 🇬🇧
Thunes: Product Manager - Digital Assets, London 🇬🇧
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What do you think of today's briefing?
Disclaimer: The information provided in the Crypto Briefing by Blockstories does not constitute investment advice. Accordingly, we assume no liability for any investment decisions made based on the content presented herein.
