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Korean firms question Open USD Alliance listings as Upbit denies formal commitment

Korean firms question Open USD Alliance listings as Upbit denies formal commitment

Samsung and other South Korean companies were listed in Open USD consortium materials without agreeing to the association, adding to scrutiny of how the stablecoin project presented its partner roster.

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Fact Check
The primary Chosun Biz report directly confirms the claim: after OUSD/Open Standard published a roster of 140+ firms, South Korean companies (Samsung Electronics, Shinhan Financial Group, Dunamu, Kbank) said they had no official consultations, only informally expressed willingness to review, and were unclear about their roles. This is independently corroborated by crypto.news, BlockBeats, and CryptoTimes, which all match the roster size and the identities of the disputing firms. The convergence of the primary Korean-language outlet and multiple independent secondary reports makes the claim highly reliable.
Summary

Scrutiny of the Open USD Alliance’s partner disclosures widened after Samsung and other South Korean companies said they had not agreed to be associated with the project despite appearing in consortium materials as partners. Chosun Ilbo reported that Open USD publicly presented Samsung and other entities as partners even though those companies had not consented to such an affiliation. The issue adds to earlier statements from Korean firms that there had been no formal talks about joining, or that they had only signaled a willingness to review the proposal, despite being listed among more than 140 partners for the planned dollar stablecoin Open USD. The dispute cuts into one of Open USD’s main selling points, as the alliance had been promoted as a potential rival to USDT and USDC partly because of its long list of named partners, which included Visa, Stripe, Mastercard, American Express, BlackRock and Coinbase. Circle shares fell more than 15% on the day of the announcement, while Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire said the company’s stablecoin partnership with Coinbase remained unchanged and later posted on X that “Integrity matters.”

Terms & Concepts
  • stablecoin: A digital token designed to hold a steady value, often by being linked to a fiat currency such as the U.S. dollar.
  • Open USD Alliance: The consortium tied to Open USD, a planned dollar-denominated stablecoin project that published a roster of more than 140 partners.
  • partner roster: A public list of companies presented as participating in or associated with a project.