US Bancorp is running a stablecoin pilot on the Stellar blockchain, joining the growing number of banks experimenting with the technology.
The bank is partnering with consulting company PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and the Stellar Development Foundation to run the pilot.
“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 said on Tuesday.
US Bancorp is the publicly traded parent company of US Bank, which holds more than $664 billion in assets under management and reports annual revenue of over $27.5 billion, according to the bank.
Stablecoin test to demonstrate promise of blockchain to banks
Kurt Fields, director and blockchain lead at PwC, said the primary objective of the pilot was to demonstrate the promise of blockchain in a trusted, bank-grade environment during a Tuesday 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.
“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 chosen for its ability to freeze assets
The Stellar network launched in 2014 as an open-source, decentralized blockchain designed for cross-border payments and asset tokenization.
Mike Villano, the head of digital assets products at US Bank, said his organization chose Stellar for its pilot because it allows transaction unwinding and clawbacks.
Villano said the Stellar platform has the “ability at their base operating layer to freeze assets and unwind transactions,” which was a key consideration for customer protections.
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“Often, you might write that into the business logic in itself, but in this instance, you could do it at the core blockchain layer. So that was very interesting to us,” he added.
Tokenized asset research is also in the works at US Bank
Villano also said US Bank is looking at tokenized assets and is in the research phase.
“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,” he said.
“So we’re excited to see where that research goes for us as well.”
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