ONED USD Explained: Gennius's Dollar Token on Base

Gennius said on Oct. 8 that it is bringing ONED USD to banks across Latin America, with the first financial institution going live in Argentina, according to its press release. The release names no bank and gives no launch date. Coinbase's developer account posted the news on Oct. 9, and Base shared it with the line "Stablecoins on Base are coming to Latin American banks." Our earlier brief covered the announcement; this piece sorts out who does what.

Who issues ONED USD

ONED USD is Gennius's product. Gennius announced its launch on June 15 as "a USD stablecoin fully backed by USDC and powered by Coinbase." The ONED site says the program is "developed and managed by Gennius XYZ" and built on Coinbase's Custom Stablecoin platform.

The October release says ONED USD is "issued through Coinbase's Custom Stablecoins program" and backed 1:1 by USDC held in Coinbase custody. Coinbase's documentation describes the program as "branded tokens backed 1:1 by USDC, with Coinbase managing the infrastructure behind issuance, redemption, conversions, and reserves." In that model the partner controls the brand and receives USDC when tokens are burned. Coinbase says it publishes reserve data refreshed nearly every minute.

What each party does

Gennius calls itself the Program Manager. Per the release, it integrates a bank's core banking, digital banking, card issuing and processing, and compliance systems, and operates each program end to end, with banks offering the service under their own brand. The release describes Gennius as integrated with the Visa and Mastercard networks and connected to 85 financial institutions across Latin America and the Caribbean.

Coinbase supplies what the release calls "the underlying regulated digital asset infrastructure": custody, exchange, and issuance of ONED USD. Alec Lovett, Coinbase's Head of Infrastructure Business, said in the release that the partnership puts banks "at the forefront of payments technology, with cheaper, faster money movement." Sergio Arana, Gennius's founder and president, said banks "should not have to move to a completely new technology platform to support digital assets for their clients."

Base is the network the token runs on. The release says ONED USD is "built on Base," and Coinbase's Custom Stablecoins overview lists Base Mainnet among the networks it supports today. Neither document describes any separate arrangement between Gennius and Base. Descout's pages on Base and Coinbase carry the wider context, and our Base weekly analysis covers the chain's other activity that week.

What a bank customer gets

The release says customers can convert eligible deposits and loyalty rewards into ONED USD, hold it, and spend it through an instantly issued Visa card at more than 175 million merchant locations. Transfers run 24/7 "at near-zero marginal cost," and local-currency on and off ramps run in-market. Gennius adds that the Rhodium Visa card works in 150+ countries. The company argues the demand already exists: in the Argentine peso, Brazilian real and Colombian peso markets, it says, more than half of exchange purchases are now stablecoin purchases. That figure is Gennius's own and the release gives no source for it.

Live versus planned

The ONED USD token itself has existed since Gennius's June 15 launch release. What the October release adds is the bank channel: the first institution is "going live" in Argentina, which the release calls the initial market in a regional rollout. The partners "plan to extend the model to additional markets across the region following the Argentina launch." The release lists no further countries or dates for that expansion. It also states that availability of specific products "varies by jurisdiction and is subject to applicable regulatory approvals and eligibility requirements."

Gennius describes its footprint as 85+ financial institutions, 520+ programs and 11.8M+ users across 37 countries (the release's body text elsewhere says "+529 connected programs"), and says it is the first Latin America investment by Dubai's Seed Group. Those are existing Gennius programs. The release does not say how many of those institutions will offer ONED USD.

What has not been published

• Which Argentine bank is first, and the date it opens to customers.
• Redemption terms for bank customers. Coinbase's docs describe verified redemptions of burned tokens back to USDC for the brand partner, but the release states no customer-facing redemption path or fees.
• How reserve income is shared. Coinbase's docs say it accrues rewards on reserve balances and pays them weekly to partners; the release does not say who receives them for ONED USD.
• The Argentine regulatory approvals the release's footnote refers to, and which are in hand.
• ONED USD's circulating supply.