U.S. Bancorp Tests Its Own Stablecoin on Stellar Blockchain

U.S. Bancorp has started testing a proprietary stablecoin on the Stellar blockchain, becoming the latest major U.S. bank to move deeper into digital assets, as reported by Bloomberg. The move places U.S. Bank alongside institutions like Bank of America and Citi, which are exploring stablecoins backed by U.S. dollars and U.S. Treasurys. As of September 30, the bank ranks as the fifth-largest in the U.S., with $671 billion in assets under management, according to the Federal Reserve.

Why U.S. Bank Chose the Stellar Blockchain

Security, compliance, and transaction control were leading factors in U.S. Bank’s selection of Stellar.
Mike Villano, senior vice president of enterprise innovation, highlighted the platform’s built-in capabilities that support financial institutions’ requirements.

“For bank customers, we have to think about other protections around know your customers … the ability to clawback transactions, and one of the great things about the Stellar platform as we did some more research and development on it was learning that they have the ability at their base operating layer to freeze assets and online transactions,” Villano explained.

Traditional Banks Increasingly Embrace Stablecoins

The broader stablecoin market continues to be dominated by Tether’s USDT and Circle’s USDC.
Last month, U.S. Bank launched a dedicated digital assets division to grow new revenue lanes in stablecoin issuance, cryptocurrency custody, asset tokenization, and digital money movement.

“Clients increasingly want to understand how digital assets can help them securely move money, store deposits, and use tokenized assets,” said Dominic Venturo, chief digital officer at U.S. Bancorp.

Stellar’s Uptime and Adoption by Financial Institutions

Stellar has delivered 99.99% uptime over the past ten years and is already used by major financial firms, including Taurus, Franklin Templeton, WisdomTree, and Circle. The network’s reliability and compliance-friendly features remain key attractions for institutions.

Stellar’s native token XLM is trading around $0.25, down approximately 2.9% on the day in line with broader crypto market weakness. The token remains nearly 72% below its all-time high of $0.88.