US Bancorp is piloting a stablecoin on the Stellar blockchain, joining the increasing number of financial institutions exploring this cutting-edge technology.
The bank is collaborating with consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and the Stellar Development Foundation to conduct this pilot project.
“The bottom line is institutions have arrived. New financial infrastructure is taking shape now, and US Bank, PwC, and SDF are working to unlock the next wave of digital banking,” the Stellar Development Foundation stated on Tuesday.
US Bancorp, which is the parent company of US Bank, manages over $664 billion in assets and has an annual revenue exceeding $27.5 billion according to the bank’s official fact sheet.
Stablecoin Pilot – A Leap Forward for Blockchain in Banking
Kurt Fields from PwC mentioned that the primary goal of the pilot is to showcase the potential of blockchain in a secured, bank-standard environment as discussed in a recent episode of the US Banks podcast, Money 20/20.
“We’ve been talking about blockchain for years, and we’re at a point now where it’s not about innovation anymore,” he said.
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José Fernández da Ponte from the Stellar Development Foundation, Mike Villano from US Bank, and Kurt Fields from PwC. (Left to right) Source: YouTube
“It’s about practical application in a rigorous, highly regulated environment where we’re taking advantage of the tooling onchain in this case on the Stellar network to demonstrate that the promise of programmable money actually yields benefits for not only the institution but the customers that they serve.”
Stellar Blockchain – Select for Effective Asset Management
The Stellar network, established in 2014, is an open-source decentralized blockchain tailored for international payments and asset tokenization. Mike Villano noted that Stellar was selected for its ability to freeze assets and reverse transactions.
“Often, you might write that into the business logic itself, but in this instance, you could do it at the core blockchain layer. So that was very interesting to us,” Villano remarked.
Exploring Tokenized Assets at US Bank
In addition, Villano shared that US Bank is currently researching tokenized assets.
“We’re also doing some additional research around tokenized assets, where if you could take the value proposition of moving quickly, moving 24/7 and moving it very efficiently, you can apply that to all sorts of other asset classes that come along with it.”
“So we’re excited to see where that research goes for us as well.”
For more insights, check out this article on Sunny Lu, who faced challenges leading him to create VeChain.
