ARK Invest's Director of Research, Lorenzo Valente, has expressed skepticism about the newly launched stablecoin project Open USD, backed by over 500 companies including Visa, Stripe, Mastercard, BlackRock, and Coinbase. Valente argues that Open USD faces significant challenges in achieving scale due to the established network effects of existing stablecoins like USDC and USDT. He highlights the inherent decision-making disadvantages of a large consortium and the increased regulatory and antitrust risks as the project scales. Valente also criticizes the economic model of returning reserve earnings to partners, which he believes will leave the issuer with insufficient capital to cover operational expenses. He notes that many participants are hedging their bets, with companies like Stripe and Coinbase having their own interests in existing payment systems and stablecoins. Valente likens Open USD to a DAO experiment, suggesting that its decentralized ownership could lead to a lack of accountability, contrasting it with the agility of current operators who do not require consensus from a large group.