U.S. Bank Executes Live USBDC Stablecoin Pilot Cross-Border Payment on Stellar
U.S. Bank completed a live pilot using USBDC, its proprietary U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin, for a cross-border payment between its North America and Europe entities on the Stellar blockchain. The test covered minting, redemption, freezing, and clawback and validated the bank’s Digital Asset Platform. The bank frames USBDC as one of the first bank-issued stablecoins on a public blockchain.
E
Editor
Sep 9, 2026 · 1mo ago
2 min read84 views
U.S. Bank has completed a live pilot using USBDC, its proprietary U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin, to move a cross-border payment between U.S. Bank entities in North America and Europe. That is the bank’s investor-relations release dated 9 September 2026 (Business Wire / Minneapolis).
The pilot ran on the Stellar blockchain. U.S. Bank frames USBDC as one of the first bank-issued stablecoins deployed on a public blockchain, and says the transfer stayed wired into the bank’s core finance, risk, compliance, and operations stack.
What the pilot tested
The release stamps that the pilot evaluated minting, payment redemption, freezing, and clawback. It also validates U.S. Bank’s internally developed Digital Asset Platform, which the bank says underpins issuing, managing, and moving tokenized assets between traditional banking rails and blockchain networks.
Stellar partnership
The initiative builds on a strategic relationship with the Stellar Development Foundation. U.S. Bank highlights Stellar’s institutional-grade positioning for regulated financial services — global reach, near-instant settlement, and sub-cent costs — alongside the bank’s payments, treasury, and banking franchise.
Leadership stamps
“This live pilot demonstrates our ability to accelerate global cash management and money movement capabilities,” said Gunjan Kedia, chairman and chief executive officer at U.S. Bank, in the release. “We are excited to create value for our clients and harness the power of a new technology within the banking system.”
“This pilot is another step forward in our broader digital asset strategy,” said Jamie Walker, Head of Digital Assets and Money Movement at U.S. Bank. “Our focus remains on delivering solutions that solve real client challenges while maintaining the safety, security and reliability that clients expect from U.S. Bank.”
What’s next
Future applications under exploration, per the release, include enhanced liquidity management, collateral mobility, cross-border treasury operations, and other institutional use cases where blockchain can improve efficiency, transparency, and settlement speed.
This is a pilot, not a general client launch announcement in the IR text.
Informational only. Not trading advice, signals, or a guarantee of any market outcome.
Written and fact-checked with AI assistance, reviewed by a human editor before publication.
Democrats are pushing a CLARITY Act provision directing regulators to set conflict-of-interest standards for vertically integrated crypto firms, citing FTX/Alameda-style structures, while Republicans warn the language could be weaponized by a future Democratic president. Sen. Cory Booker is negotiating wording with Sens. Lummis and Boozman ahead of next week’s cloture vote. Ethics language and bank opposition to stablecoin yield remain open.
Nasdaq is investing $100 million in Payward, the parent of crypto exchange Kraken, through its venture arm, valuing the company at $21 billion, according to Bloomberg via Wu Blockchain. The capital injection deepens a March strategic partnership aimed at tokenized-equities trading, settlement, and custody infrastructure.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent urged the Senate to advance the CLARITY Act, warning that walking away would forfeit enhanced crypto national-security tools and signal the U.S. is ceding digital-asset leadership. The Sept. 15 vote is cloture on the motion to proceed to H.R. 3633 — it needs 60 votes and is not final passage. The tone shifts from July’s market-structure urgency to a national-security frame.