What Is Open USD (OUSD)?
Open USD (OUSD) is a US dollar stablecoin issued by Bridge, a Stripe company, under Open Standard, a company founded by Coinbase, Mastercard, Shopify, Stripe, and Visa. It went live on September 30, 2026, on Ethereum, Base, Solana, and Tempo, with reserves held at BlackRock, Lead Bank, and BNY (Open Standard, October 2026). Who stands behind the token and how it compares with other dollar stablecoins is covered in the Open USD guide, and how to store it on each network in the OUSD wallet overview.
How Buying OUSD in Gem Wallet Works
Gem Wallet lets you buy OUSD without an exchange: you pay an on-ramp provider with a card or a bank transfer, and the provider sends OUSD directly to your own address in the wallet. The stablecoin never sits on a third-party account, so it is under your control from the first minute.
OUSD exists as a separate token on four networks, and you choose the network before you pay. Ethereum, Base, and Tempo deliver to a 0x address, Solana to a base58 address - all of them created with the wallet from your 12-word secret phrase. Gem Wallet works with more than ten fiat on-ramp partners and shows the offers available in your country, so you pick the provider and the payment method before the purchase.
What It Costs to Buy OUSD
OUSD is redeemable 1:1 for US dollars, so the cost of a purchase is not about the token price but about what sits around it:
- Provider fee and rate: each on-ramp provider sets its own fee and its own USD rate, which is why offers for the same amount differ.
- Payment method: cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and bank transfers can be priced differently by the same provider.
- Delivery network: the provider pays the network fee to deliver OUSD, and that fee is higher on Ethereum than on Base, Solana, or Tempo.
Gem Wallet shows the full amount in your currency and the OUSD you will receive before you confirm, so there are no surprises after the payment.
Buy OUSD or Swap Into It
There are two ways to get OUSD into the wallet, and the right one depends on what you already hold:
| Route | You pay with | What you pay for |
|---|---|---|
| Buy | Card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, bank transfer | Provider fee and rate |
| Swap | USDC, USDT, ETH, or other crypto | Swap route and network fees |
If you hold fiat, buying is the direct route. If you already hold stablecoins or other crypto, swap them for OUSD through the built-in DEX aggregator in Gem Wallet: no card and no provider checkout.
After the Purchase: Fees to Move Your OUSD
Buying OUSD does not pay for moving it later. To send OUSD from Ethereum or Base, the wallet needs a small amount of ETH on that network, and on Solana it needs SOL - OUSD itself cannot pay those fees. Tempo is the exception: it has no native gas coin, and fees there are paid in USD stablecoins, so OUSD on Tempo can be sent without buying a second asset.
Before you send OUSD anywhere, check that the receiving side uses the same network: OUSD on Base and OUSD on Solana are different tokens, and a transfer to the wrong network can be lost. A token called OUSD at any contract other than the official Open USD contracts is a different coin - the addresses for all four networks are listed on the OUSD wallet page.
