Korean Firms Dispute Inclusion on Open USD Partner List

Samsung Electronics, Dunamu, Shinhan Financial Group and K Bank say they did not formally agree to join Open USD, despite appearing on the stablecoin consortium’s partner list of more than 140 organizations. The companies described any contact as preliminary or under consideration rather than a confirmed commitment.

Samsung Electronics told Open Standard there had been no official consultation and that it did not know what role, if any, it would play in the consortium. Dunamu, Shinhan Financial Group and K Bank indicated they were asked whether they were interested and replied they would review the matter but did not give formal permission to be included. An unnamed company official said the firm learned of its listing through domestic media and had only indicated it would consider participation if the project advanced.

Open Standard unveiled Open USD on June 30, presenting it as a shared stablecoin for cross-border money movement and listing more than 140 participating businesses across payments, banking, technology and crypto. The launch materials named companies including Visa, Mastercard, BlackRock, Google, Coinbase, Stripe and Bybit alongside several Korean financial institutions.

Open USD is designed to allow free minting and redemption, use shared-reserve economics and employ collaborative governance managed through the Open Standard. The reported discrepancy concerns whether some companies were presented as confirmed partners before they provided explicit consent or clarified their roles.

At the time of writing, neither Open Standard nor the Korean firms had issued separate public statements addressing the discrepancy. The firms’ responses have raised questions about how the consortium’s partner list was compiled and communicated during the launch.