U.S. Bank takes next step towards launching its stablecoin with cross-border payment test

U.S. Bancorp's (USB) U.S. Bank is laying the groundwork to put its own stablecoin to work, completing a live cross-border payment and weighing broader uses across its payments and treasury business.

The Minneapolis-based lender completed a transaction with USBDC, its proprietary U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin, between U.S. Bank entities in North America and Europe, according to a Wednesday statement.

The move comes as stablecoins, or cryptocurrencies tied to fiat money like the U.S. dollar, become an increasingly common part of everyday finance. Once used mainly by crypto traders to move money between exchanges, dollar-pegged tokens are spreading into payments, remittances and treasury management, promising faster transfers and around-the-clock settlement.

The pilot tested minting and redeeming USBDC as well as freezing and clawing back tokens. It also validated the bank's internally developed Digital Asset Platform, which connects blockchain networks with its finance, compliance, risk and operations systems.

“This live pilot demonstrates our ability to accelerate global cash management and money movement capabilities," said Gunjan Kedia, chairman and CEO at U.S. Bank.

The transaction ran on the Stellar XLM$0.1888 blockchain, following the November announcement to experiment with custom stablecoin issuance with Stellar Development Foundation.

With stablecoin regulations being promulgated across the globe, banks are moving in. Last week, 21 financial institutions including Bank of America, Citi, Goldman Sachs and UBS announced plans to form a company to issue stablecoins for payments and digital asset transactions. The group expects to introduce a dollar token in the first half of 2027 before expanding to other currencies. In May, a group of European lenders formed a consortium dubbed Qivalis to issue a euro-backed stablecoin.

U.S. Bank said it is exploring several uses for USBDC, including cross-border treasury operations, liquidity management and moving collateral. The bank did not say when the stablecoin could become available to clients or give a timeline for a broader commercial rollout.