Key Highlights
- U.S. Bank completed a live cross-border payment using its proprietary U.S. dollar-backed USBDC stablecoin on the Stellar blockchain.
- The pilot enabled a transfer of value between U.S. Bank entities in North America and Europe.
- The transaction demonstrated on-chain settlement while remaining integrated with the bank’s finance, risk, compliance, and operations infrastructure.
U.S. Bank completed a live pilot transaction using USBDC, its proprietary U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin, to facilitate a cross-border payment between its entities in North America and Europe.
According to the official announcement, the pilot was completed on the Stellar blockchain. It demonstrated the transfer of value on-chain while maintaining integration with the bank’s core finance, risk, compliance, and operations infrastructure. U.S. Bank described USBDC as one of the first bank-issued stablecoins deployed on a public blockchain.
Pilot capabilities tested
The pilot evaluated minting, payment, redemption, freezing, and clawback functions. It also validated U.S. Bank’s internally developed Digital Asset Platform. The platform serves as the foundation for issuing, managing, and moving tokenized assets and supports interaction between traditional banking systems and blockchain networks.
Gunjan Kedia, chairman and chief executive officer at U.S. Bank, said, “This live pilot demonstrates our ability to accelerate global cash management and money movement capabilities. We are excited to create value for our clients and harness the power of a new technology within the banking system.”
Jamie Walker, Head of Digital Assets and Money Movement at U.S. Bank, stated, “This pilot is another step forward in our broader digital asset strategy. 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.”
Areas under exploration include enhanced liquidity management, collateral mobility, cross-border treasury operations, and other institutional use cases where blockchain technology could improve efficiency, transparency, and settlement speed.
Collaboration with Stellar development foundation
According to the announcement, the initiative builds on the strategic relationship between U.S. Bank and the Stellar Development Foundation. The Stellar network is described as an institutional-grade blockchain used for regulated financial services. It offers global reach, near-instant settlement, and sub-cent transaction costs.
U.S. Bank and the Stellar Development Foundation continue to evaluate opportunities related to payments, treasury, and banking services.
Earlier pilot work by Stellar
In November 2025, U.S. Bank, working with the Stellar Development Foundation and consulting firm PwC, announced a pilot program for the issuance of custom stablecoins on the Stellar network. That program tested infrastructure for regulated deposit tokens. The announcement was made on the U.S. Bank Money 20/20 podcast titled “The Tokenized Future of Banking.”
Mike Villano, Senior Vice President and Head of Digital Asset Products at U.S. Bank, said at the time that bank customers require protections including know-your-customer processes, the ability to unwind transactions, and the ability to claw back transactions. He noted that the Stellar platform includes the capacity at its base operating layer to freeze assets and unwind transactions.
The latest pilot extends that earlier testing by executing a live cross-border transaction with USBDC and confirming operational integration with U.S. Bank’s existing systems.
