Key Takeaways
- US Bank completed a live cross-border payment between its North American and European entities using its new USBDC stablecoin.
- The transaction ran on Stellar, which offers settlement in seconds and transaction costs of less than one cent.
- The test puts Stellar more directly in a race with XRP-linked payment infrastructure and SWIFT for institutional cross-border payments.
- However, the pilot was an internal US Bank transaction and does not yet represent a commercial payments rollout.
US Bank has moved real money between North America and Europe using a dollar-backed stablecoin on Stellar, providing one of the clearest examples yet of a major US bank testing a public blockchain as infrastructure for international payments.
The fifth-largest US commercial bank announced Wednesday that it successfully completed a live cross-border transaction using USBDC, its proprietary dollar-backed stablecoin.
Rather than operating on a closed bank ledger, USBDC was issued and transferred over the public Stellar blockchain while remaining connected to US Bank’s existing finance, compliance, risk and operational systems.
The experiment potentially puts Stellar into more direct competition for a market that XRP and SWIFT have spent years targeting: faster institutional cross-border settlement.
US Bank Puts Stellar Into Real-World Payment Test
The pilot transferred USBDC between US Bank entities in North America and Europe.
US Bank also tested the stablecoin’s complete operational lifecycle, including minting, payments, redemption, freezing, and clawbacks.
Those last two capabilities are particularly important for banks. Stellar allows issuers to implement asset-level controls while still settling transactions over a public blockchain.
Speed is another attraction.
Stellar says transactions reach finality within seconds and typically cost less than one cent. Traditional international bank payments can involve multiple correspondent banks and take considerably longer to settle.
US Bank is now exploring the use of the technology for cross-border treasury operations, liquidity management, and the movement of collateral between institutions.
However, the experiment remains a pilot between US Bank’s own entities. The bank has not announced that USBDC is generally available to customers or provided a timetable for a wider commercial launch.
Stellar vs. XRP vs. SWIFT Heats Up
The development is notable because cross-border payments have long been one of blockchain’s most widely discussed use cases.
Ripple has spent years building payment infrastructure on blockchain technology, while XRP has been positioned as a bridge asset that facilitates transfers between currencies.
US Bank’s approach demonstrates an alternative model.
Instead of requiring a separate volatile bridge asset, the bank issued a dollar-denominated token directly on Stellar and transferred that token across borders.
That does not mean Stellar has displaced XRP. The two architectures can serve different institutions and payment corridors, and the US Bank pilot did not test Stellar directly against XRP.
The bigger competition may increasingly involve SWIFT itself.
Rather than standing still while blockchain networks target its international payments business, SWIFT is developing its own blockchain-based infrastructure. Citi recently became the first US bank to conduct live native transactions on SWIFT’s blockchain-based ledger, working with First Abu Dhabi Bank and Singapore’s OCBC.
That creates an increasingly crowded race: public blockchains such as Stellar, crypto-focused payment networks associated with XRP, and SWIFT’s evolving bank network are all pursuing versions of always-on global settlement.
US Bank’s experiment does not determine the winner. But a top-five American bank moving its own dollars across a public blockchain suggests the contest has moved beyond theoretical proofs of concept.
The question is increasingly not whether banks will experiment with blockchain payments, but which rails they will ultimately choose.
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Dr. Guneet Kaur is a senior editor at CCN.com and a Science Fellow at Exponential Science. She is a fintech and blockchain expert with extensive experience in digital finance education, blockchain ecosystems, and cryptocurrency markets. She has worked with global media such as Cointelegraph, as well as education and blockchain platforms, to design and lead strategic content and learning initiatives. As an educator and assessor for top-tier executive programs, she bridges real-world fintech trends with academic insight.
Dr. Kaur is also a published researcher and peer reviewer across fintech and data science journals, including Financial Innovation Journal and International Journal of Big Data Intelligence and Applications. Her work spans data-driven analysis, Web3 innovation, and technical content development. With a strong foundation in both industry and academia, she translates complex financial technologies into practical applications, empowering learners, professionals, and institutions across the rapidly evolving digital finance landscape.
