Stablecoins Make Inroads in Payments with US Bank Test and Marqeta Partnership
US Bankcorp has successfully tested a live cross-border payment between North America and Europe using its private dollar-backed stablecoin, USBDC, on the Stellar blockchain. The transaction was integrated with the bank's core finance, risk, compliance, and operational systems.
The test includes minting, payment redemption, freezing, and clawback features, confirming the quality of the bank's digital asset platform. US Bank is exploring liquidity management, collateral mobility, and cross-border treasury operations as future applications.
Separately, BVNK and Marqeta have partnered to let companies issue stablecoin-backed cards, allowing users to spend digital dollars at merchants that already accept payment cards. The partnership connects Marqeta to two parts of Mastercard's network, with BVNK providing the stablecoin infrastructure and Marqeta handling card issuers, acceptance, and relationships with banks and merchants.