⚡ Fifth-Largest US Bank Tests Cross-Border Payment with Own Stablecoin

U.S. Bank has completed a live cross-border payment between its North American and European entities using USBDC, its proprietary dollar-backed stablecoin on the Stellar blockchain. The fifth-largest U.S. bank by assets tested the token’s full lifecycle while retaining critical banking controls including transaction freezes and clawbacks through Stellar’s protocol-level functionality. The pilot validates that public blockchain infrastructure can support regulated payment rails without sacrificing operational safeguards required for institutional use.

The move follows similar experiments by Société Générale-FORGE with euro and dollar tokens and ANZ’s A$DC stablecoin deployments. U.S. Bank’s approach aligns broadly with frameworks anticipated under the GENIUS Act, which takes effect no later than January 2027. However, the bank has not disclosed commercial launch timelines, customer access plans, reserve asset composition, or the issuing legal entity structure.

FXnCO Insight

Traditional banks are rapidly closing the infrastructure gap on blockchain payments, signaling that regulated stablecoin settlement could challenge existing correspondent banking networks within the next 24 months.

Source: Finance Magnates