Western Union USDPT rolls on Solana
Western Union has launched a US dollar-denominated USDPT stablecoin on Solana, bringing blockchain-based payments and the OnChain deal to the global money exchange network.
Fireblocks, one of the crypto infrastructures involved in the launch, said on Monday that USDPT is initially being implemented in Bolivia and the Philippines, while Western Union plans to expand the stablecoin to more than 40 countries by 2026.
Major exchanges have been seeing a stable coin since the Statcoin-friendly GENIUS Act was passed in July. MoneyGram began offering USDC stablecoin services in Colombia in September, and Zele announced plans to offer stablecoin cross-border transfers in October.
“The launch of the USDPT marks a broader shift in how global payments are evolving,” Western Union said, adding that many financial institutions “will adopt regulated digital assets as core infrastructure.”
The value of the stablecoin market is currently set at $317.3 billion, a figure that will exceed $2 trillion by 2030, according to the U.S. Treasury and Wall Street investment bank Citigroup.
Source: Western Union
Western Union to make USDPT available on crypto exchange
USDPT, the first federally regulated crypto bank in the US, is powered by crypto infrastructure firm Anchorage Digital, while FireBlocks is dedicating its wallet and settlement infrastructure to the stablecoin.
Western Union said it plans to make USDPT available on licensed crypto exchanges and connect it to broader payments and liquidity infrastructure.
Related: Australian draft payments vision eyes stablecoin interoperability
The launch of the USDPT in Bolivia and the Philippines brings the stablecoin to a total of 130 million people.
On Sunday, Bibit's former chief marketing officer, Claudia Wang, said there was an opportunity for remittance firms like Western Union to tap into largely untouched remittance channels in the Americas, a $174 billion market.
Money exchange corridors between the United States and Central America are exploding, she said, while many routes within Latin America — such as from Argentina to Bolivia — “have not been touched by crypto railroads.”
Western Union facilitates transfers for more than 150 million customers in more than 190 countries.
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