Samsung, Dunamu say they were listed as OUSD stablecoin consortium members without official consultation: report

Samsung Electronics, Dunamu, and several other South Korean firms listed as consortium members for the proposed dollar-pegged stablecoin OUSD said they had no formal agreement to participate, while one company said it only learned it had been included after seeing local news reports.

A Samsung Electronics official told local media outlet Chosun Biz on Friday that there were no official consultations and that the company does not know what role it would play. 

Shinhan Financial Group, Dunamu, and Kbank said Open Standard had inquired about their willingness to participate, and they responded only that they would review the matter. Their names later appeared as consortium members.

Meanwhile, an official at one unnamed corporation said the firm was "perplexed" to be listed after giving only a casual response that it would "consider it if things go well," according to Chosun. 

Open Standard announced the consortium earlier this week, saying OUSD would launch within the year. 

The consortium includes Visa, Mastercard, BlackRock, and more than 140 other participants. It is not structured as a decentralized autonomous organization or a shareholder-based model.

Under the proposed structure, participating corporations can mint OUSD by depositing dollars into Open Standard's reserve account. They can redeem the token for dollars without fees or limits.

The revenue model differs from Tether and Circle, which retain earnings from investing user deposits in U.S. government bonds. Open Standard said it would distribute reserve management revenue to network partners after deducting a small operating fee.

The total market capitalization of dollar-pegged stablecoins has exceeded $291 billion, according to The Block’s data dashboard, with Tether’s USDT accounting for about $184.3 billion and Circle’s USDC at more than $73 billion.

Expand Chart

The Block attempted to reach Open Standard for comment.