U.S. Bank Completes Live Cross-Border USBDC Stablecoin Transaction on Stellar in One of the First Public-Blockchain Deployments by a Large US Bank
U.S. Bank Completes Live Cross-Border USBDC Stablecoin Transaction on Stellar in One of the First Public-Blockchain Deployments by a Large US Bank #
U.S. Bank has completed a live pilot of its proprietary dollar-backed stablecoin, USBDC, executing an intrabank cross-border payment between the bank’s own entities in North America and Europe. The transaction, announced on 9 September 2026, ran on the public Stellar blockchain and is among the first live, on-chain stablecoin deployments by a large US bank.
The pilot tested the bank’s internally developed Digital Asset Platform, demonstrating that tokenized value can move on a public distributed ledger while integrated with U.S. Bank’s existing risk management, compliance, and operations infrastructure. According to the bank’s announcement, the exercise validated the full stablecoin lifecycle: minting, payment execution, redemption, and the freezing and clawback of tokens. The last two controls are ones regulators and compliance officers typically require before any bank-grade digital asset program can proceed.
U.S. Bank entered a formal collaboration with the Stellar Development Foundation and PwC in November 2025 to explore custom stablecoin issuance, which provided the technical basis for the live transaction. The bank had created a dedicated Digital Assets and Money Movement organization in October 2025 to advance its work in stablecoin issuance, digital asset custody, and money tokenization.
CEO Gunjan Kedia has described USBDC as aimed at accelerating global cash management capabilities. The bank’s announcement cites the stablecoin’s potential to address gaps in the international banking system through round-the-clock settlement, contrasted with the batch-settlement windows common in traditional correspondent banking.
The current pilot is strictly an internal exercise; USBDC is not yet available to customers. U.S. Bank has previously provided custody services for Anchorage Digital Bank’s stablecoin reserves. The bank is now among a small group of major financial institutions that have moved stablecoin projects from proof of concept into live infrastructure.
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