Visa partners can now settle obligations in Western Union’s USDPT

Visa’s partnership with issuer Anchorage Digital, announced Thursday, allows Visa and eligible partners to now settle VisaNet obligations in Western Union’s dollar stablecoin USDPT.

USDPT is the first stablecoin issued by Anchorage’s bank to attain native settlement status on Visa’s network.

McCauley says institutions need a regulated bank behind the money

The token is issued and held by Anchorage Digital Bank N.A. The bank is the first federally chartered crypto bank in the US, and is overseen by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, according to Anchorage’s release.

Both companies also established a framework to explore support for more Anchorage-issued stablecoins following the launch of the USDPT.

“As stablecoin payments grow, we’re focused on providing more choice for our partners in how they settle with Visa,” said Dan Roesbery, Visa’s vice president of global crypto partnerships and GTM. USDPT, he said, provides partners “another trusted, institution-grade option backed by a federally chartered bank.”

“Stablecoins have made money move faster, but speed alone won’t bring institutions onchain. They need a regulated institution behind the money,” said Nathan McCauley, co-founder and CEO of Anchorage.

Anchorage wants to be the institutional settlement bank for stablecoins. Beyond issuance, it runs Atlas, a counterparty network consisting of off-exchange settlement, collateral management and cross-border transfers.

Anchorage’s bank lands its first card-network settlement asset

USDPT was launched in May on Solana. Western Union initially rolled it out in the Philippines and Bolivia, and plans to settle 24/7 in more than 200 countries.

Cryptopolitan said in October that Noah was selected by Western Union to run Receiver Redirect, a payout service that sends transfers as USDPT. The token is still tiny, with ~$18 million circulating according to DeFiLlama.

Other names on Anchorage’s issuance roster include USAT for Tether, USDGO for OSL Group, USDtb for Ethena Labs, fUSD for Falcon Finance and ZLUSD for Zelle. Each is 100% backed by U.S. dollars and cash equivalents and redeemable 1:1, the firm says.

Visa said in September that its annualized stablecoin settlement run rate topped $20 billion, up more than 15-fold from a year ago. Visa extended the pilot to nine blockchains in April, at an annual run rate of $7 billion.

Visa now settles on networks including Base, Canton, Monad and Tempo.

Total stablecoin supply is at ~$289 billion, down from ~$313 billion peak in May. Circle’s USDC has about $70 billion, while Tether’s USDT has about $176 billion.

Anchorage was founded in San Francisco in 2017 and has investors that include Visa, Andreessen Horowitz, Goldman Sachs and KKR. The company was valued at over $3 billion in a Series D round.