U.S. Bank backs four routes to client payments after USBDC cross-border test
The bank moved a single test payment between North America and Europe on Stellar, and its head of digital assets calls USBDC one component of a strategy that also runs through the Open Standard and Zelle consortiums.
The Investor · Invest desk
What happened
- U.S. Bank completed a test payment using USBDC, its dollar-backed stablecoin, moving value between North America and Europe.
- The coin was minted, paid and redeemed inside the bank's existing risk, compliance and operations systems, in a project it began with Stellar and PwC in late 2025.
- Tokenized deposits were on the radar of 24 of the 50 largest banks in the first quarter, up from 19 the quarter before, in research American Banker cites.
Why it matters
- Who has to decide decision By paying into four routes at once, U.S. Bank has deferred the only decision that matters commercially: which dollar token its clients settle on.
- What it limits constraint With no size, fee or settlement time published, the pilot cannot yet be used to win a pricing argument against correspondent banking.
- What doesn't add up contradiction Cornerstone's DeSanctis expects a consortium of banks or processors to be the end state, which cuts against treating one bank's own coin as the template peers must copy.
- What it sets up precedent If Open Standard issues later this year, U.S. Bank will have a second dollar token to distribute, and the live test becomes which one clients ask for.
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Circle aims USDC at about 40 emerging markets from a 25% share of stablecoinsConfirmed3 publishers
No transaction size, no fee, no counterparty. American Banker's account of the USBDC transfer carries none of the three [21]. The publication describes the stablecoin as a faster and cheaper way to run a cross-border payment than correspondent banks managing the currency conversion and the compliance [25], and nothing disclosed lets a corporate treasurer check that against a wire on the same corridor.
The term worth reading twice is how the bank ranks its own coin. "USBDC is one component of a broader strategy that also includes our participation in the Open Standard and Zelle consortiums, with each solution designed to address distinct client needs and use cases," Jamie Walker, head of digital assets and money movement at U.S. Bank, told American Banker in an email [6]. Walker said the bank will also keep working with third-party issuers that comply with the GENIUS Act where they fit client needs [7]. That is four routes to the same payment [19]. A bank that had settled on its own coin would be funding one.
Twelve participants are named in the Open USD consortium once U.S. Bank is counted, and four of them are banks: U.S. Bank, BNY, Huntington and Citizens [11][23]. The other eight are American Express, Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, Adyen, Affirm, Klarna and Coinbase [11]. "Stablecoins will become a product of scale and interoperability," Tony DeSanctis, senior director at Cornerstone Advisors, told American Banker [17]. He was specific about where that lands: "It is much more likely that a consortium of banks or payment processors will be the end state solution for stablecoins." [18]
The competing product inside the same institutions is the tokenized deposit, which American Banker calls a theoretically less risky alternative [15]. Put the quarterly count in shares and it is 48% of the 50 largest banks with tokenized deposits on the radar, up from 38% three months earlier, a move of five banks [14][24]. American Banker's own research finds many bank stablecoin projects and few formal releases [12]. Circle and Tether have held the market while banks waited on regulatory clarity [13].
Reading one Stellar payment as pressure on peers assumes the coin is the product. McKinsey, cited by American Banker, argues the gap between publicized projects and actual payment usage does not diminish the long-term potential and instead clarifies where the utility sits, and it tells banks to pick use cases on business benefits, scale, regulatory constraints and the ability to integrate with existing systems [16]. Scale and interoperability point at the consortium. The other reading, or rather the one I would put money on, is the treasury reading: U.S. Bank says it is now looking at liquidity management, collateral mobility and cross-border treasury operations [5], and in those the bank is frequently its own counterparty, so USBDC can work as an internal ledger that never needs another bank to accept it. Two disclosures would settle which it is. A named corridor with settlement time and cost against the correspondent route, and the Open Standard coin arriving later this year with U.S. Bank issuing on that as well [8].
What to watch
- Whether the Open Standard consortium issues its coin later this year, and whether U.S. Bank issues on it alongside USBDC.
- Any disclosure of USBDC volume, fee or settlement time measured against a correspondent-bank wire on the same corridor.
- The next quarterly tokenized deposit count among the 50 largest banks, after the move from 19 to 24.
Information, not investment advice. This story is general information about companies and markets, drawn from cited reporting. It is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any security; check the cited sources before acting.
Clarity's read
What the record supports and how the coverage leans. The claims behind it follow.
Reality
- Evidence55
- Adoption8
- Hype gap+20
- Incentives60
- Confidence65
Claim ledger
Ranked by verification strength, evidence, and original report placement.
- [1]
U.S. Bank has executed a test payment using USBDC, the institution's U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin, enabling a transfer between North America and Europe.
- [2]
The USBDC transaction used the Stellar blockchain, as part of U.S. Bank's effort to show it could transfer digital assets on a blockchain while staying integrated with its core finance, risk, compliance and operations systems.
- [3]
U.S. Bank initially partnered with Stellar and PwC in late 2025 to test the stablecoin, which was minted, paid and redeemed inside the bank's existing risk, compliance and operations.
- [4]
U.S. Bank is Minneapolis-based.
- [5]
Following the pilot, U.S. Bank is exploring other uses for the stablecoin such as enhanced liquidity management, collateral mobility, cross-border treasury operations and other institutional use cases.
- [6]
"USBDC is one component of a broader strategy that also includes our participation in the Open Standard and Zelle consortiums, with each solution designed to address distinct client needs and use cases," U.S. Bank's Walker told American Banker in an email.
- [7]
In addition to USBDC and consortium participation, U.S. Bank will continue to collaborate with GENIUS Act-compliant third-party stablecoin issuers where aligned to client needs and expectations, Walker said.
- [8]
U.S. Bank is working on the Open Standard stablecoin project, which is expected to issue a coin later this year.
- [9]
U.S. Bank plans to add more uses for the stablecoin beyond cross-border payments in the coming months.
- [10]
"This pilot is another step forward in our broader digital asset strategy," Jamie Walker, head of digital assets and money movement at U.S. Bank, said in a release.
- [11]
U.S. Bank is participating in the Open USD consortium, which includes BNY, Huntington Bank, Citizens Bank, American Express, Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, Adyen, Affirm, Klarna and Coinbase.
- [12]
Banks are pursuing stablecoin projects, but there have not been a lot of formal releases, according to American Banker research.
- [13]
Stablecoins tied to cryptocurrency firms such as Circle and Tether have dominated the stablecoin market thus far as banks have awaited regulatory clarity.
- [14]
Twenty-four of the largest 50 banks have tokenized deposits "on their radar" as of the first quarter, up from 19 the prior quarter.
- [15]
Banks also appear to favor tokenized deposits, a theoretically less risky alternative to stablecoins.
- [16]
According to McKinsey, the gap between publicized projects and actual payment usage does not diminish stablecoins' long-term potential and instead clarifies the greatest potential for utility and disruption; McKinsey suggests banks base use cases on business benefits, scale, regulatory constraints and ability to integrate with existing systems.
- [17]
"Stablecoins will become a product of scale and interoperability," Tony DeSanctis, senior director at Cornerstone Advisors, told American Banker.
- [18]
"It is much more likely that a consortium of banks or payment processors will be the end state solution for stablecoins," DeSanctis told American Banker.
- [19]
U.S. Bank is backing four routes to the same client payment: its own USBDC, the Open Standard consortium, the Zelle consortium, and GENIUS Act-compliant third-party issuers.
- [20]
"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," Walker said in a release.
- [21]
American Banker's report of the USBDC transfer states the corridor and the blockchain but not the payment's size, its fee or its counterparty.
- [22]
"We maintain a long-term focus on interoperability across digital asset ecosystems, tokenized real-world asset networks, and other blockchain platforms where client demand and market activity grow," Walker said.
- [23]
Counting U.S. Bank, twelve participants are named in the Open USD consortium, of which four are banks (U.S. Bank, BNY, Huntington, Citizens) and eight are not.
- [24]
The tokenized deposit count is 48% of the 50 largest banks in the first quarter, up from 38% the prior quarter, a rise of five banks or 10 percentage points in one quarter.
- [25]
In this case the stablecoin acts as a faster and cheaper means to execute a cross-border payment than the existing method of using correspondent banks to manage currency conversion and compliance.
Sources
2 independent publishers whose own reporting we read for this story.
- americanbanker.comUS Bank partners with Stellar to test stablecoin
1 article · September 10, 2026
- crowdfundinsider.comUS Bank Completes Intrabank USBDC Stablecoin Pilot Across North America and Europe via Stellar Blockchain
1 article · September 10, 2026
Topics and entities
Entities
- Open USD consortium
- Circle
- U.S. Bank
- Tether
- Cornerstone Advisors
- Stellar
- Zelle
- PwC
- McKinsey
- GENIUS Act