Financial giant Western Union has pinpointed a May deadline for the rollout of its U.S. dollar backed stablecoin USDPT amid a push towards getting digital assets into the core money movement of the service provider.
The news, announced on Friday, comes at a time when the firm plans to prioritize wider usage of digital assets and integrate them more deeply going forward.
Western Union president and CEO Devin McGranahan said during the company’s first-quarter earnings call, “Over the last few months, we’ve crossed an important threshold. It is no longer a question of if Western Union will be active in digital assets, it is now how fast can we scale.”
“At the foundation of our strategy is USDPT, our U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin. USDPT is now in its final stages of readiness and is expected to go live next month,” he added.
Western Union’s move comes in tandem with the larger market trends as financial institutions increasingly turn to stablecoins payments and adoption.
The biggest benefit of a steady stablecoin rollout is the faster, more affordable, and round-the-clock ways to move money across borders. Many service providers are also using them to manage cash more efficiently and explore new business opportunities.
The shift is clear as major banks like JPMorgan Chase and Société Générale begin developing and testing their own stablecoin offerings.
Western Union stablecoin rollout history
Western Union first announced the stablecoin rollout in October, stating that it would be built on Solana and issued by Anchorage Digital Bank. The financial giant intends to integrate it with the digital asset network to enable users to use the token smoothly.
According to McGranahan, exchange partners will help with USDPT access, conversion, and distribution, while banks and financial institution partners in key corridors will make direct settlement and treasury use cases easier.
“Together, these relationships position USDPT as a foundational asset for scaling digital payments and settlement across our platform,” he stated.
Currently, US dollar-denominated stablecoins make for the majority of the $320 billion stablecoin market value.
Tether’s USDT (USDT) has a market capitalization of more than $189.7 billion, followed by Circle’s USDC (USDC) at $77.7 billion and Sky Dollar at $8.2 billion, according to DeFi analytics portal DefiLlama.
Western Union’s digital asset network (DAN), which seeks to enable stablecoins and other cryptocurrencies to flow across its worldwide payment system and connect to actual cash access, will add its first partner this week, according to McGranahan.
He continued, “Our partner pipeline represents tens of millions of crypto wallets worldwide, creating a powerful distribution channel that brings digital asset users directly into Western Union’s retail and digital network, solving an industry-wide issue of ramping from crypto to cash as a safe and effective utility.”
U.S. dollar stable card launch later for the year
The financial giant is also in the middle of rolling out a U.S. dollar stable card, which will allow users to hold and spend stablecoins later this year.
The USD stable card will likely aid in a wider adoption of the firm’s stabelcoin, helping users find all services without cumbersome efforts.
The firm’s urge towards a full swing digital asset adoption comes on top of moderate quarterly results. According to Friday’s earnings call and the financial report, Western Union reported a steady first quarter, despite a market downturn.
It reported adjusted sales of $983 million, which was 400 basis points higher than the fourth quarter but 1 percent down than the previous year.
Further, despite the positive news, the financial giant’s stock price toppled 4.6 percent last Friday to close at $8.9.