Open USD live, but not in the MiCA register
Open USD (OUSD) launched on September 30, 2026, as a U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin issued by Bridge, a subsidiary of Stripe. The project is backed by a consortium of major financial and technology firms, including Coinbase, Mastercard, Shopify, Stripe, and Visa, which have collectively pledged over $1 billion in liquidity. While the issuer, Bridge Building S.A., holds an electronic money institution (EMI) authorization in Luxembourg, the OUSD token itself has not been notified in the MiCA register as of October 1, 2026. This regulatory status is critical because, under the European Union's Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation, an e-money token must have a published and notified white paper to be offered publicly or traded within the EU. Although the issuer has notified a euro-denominated token, the absence of a white paper for OUSD means that EU-regulated exchanges cannot legally offer the asset to European users. This distinction highlights the complexity of MiCA, where authorization applies to the company, but compliance requirements are strictly token-specific. The situation serves as a reminder that institutional backing and corporate licensing do not automatically grant regulatory clearance for individual crypto-assets in the European market.
