Western Union will roll out its dollar-backed stablecoin, USDPT (US Dollar Payment Token), next month on the Solana blockchain, initially as a settlement tool for agent partners rather than a full-fledged retail consumer product.
The launch has already been planned for the first half of 2026 since last year, which brings Western Union closer to its goal of further contributing to the restructuring of the cross-border settlement structure globally. The company also aims to launch two other innovative products, namely the Digital Asset Network (DAN) and the USD stable card.
Plans to launch the USDPT stablecoin in October 2025 have been revealed. As reported by Cryptopolitan. CEO Devin McGranahan confirmed the timeline during the company’s Q1 2026 earnings call on April 24. “The foundation of our strategy is USDPT, our stablecoin backed by the US dollar,” McGranahan told analysts. “It is no longer a question of whether Western Union will be active in digital assets; it is now a matter of how quickly we can scale.”
News: During the first quarter earnings call, @western union He told her @SolanaA stable coin based on the US dollar $USDPT It is now in the final stage of preparation and is expected to be launched next month as an alternative to SWIFT for cross-border settlements. pic.twitter.com/vR9VgTUtuV
– Solana Floor (@SolanaFloor) April 27, 2026
Western Union’s USDPT focuses on settlements first
USDPT will not be launched as a retail product. McGranahan said the token will serve as an alternative to SWIFT for settling transactions between Western Union and its network of agents in select countries. On-chain settlement will allow transfers to be processed 24/7, including weekends and bank holidays when traditional banks are offline.
The USDPT token will be issued by Anchorage Digital Bank, a federally authorized crypto custodian. Western Union first revealed the partnership with Anchorage and Solana in October 2025, alongside the stablecoin unveiling, and has since filed a trademark for “WUUSD,” according to a Crypto Times report.
The company claimed that USDPT would allow it to capture revenues that would otherwise flow to third-party stablecoin issuers, including income from issuance, exchange rate differentials, transaction fees, and the float on reserves.
Digital Asset Network and accompanying products for the USD Stable Card
The Digital Asset Network (DAN) will connect cryptocurrency wallets to Western Union’s retail and agent footprint through a single API. The company said the first DAN partner will go live the week of April 27, and seven or more partners are expected to be activated throughout the remainder of 2026. “Through DAN, millions of wallet users will be able to move from digital assets to local currency using Western Union’s retail network,” McGranahan said. Western Union operates in over 200 countries and has hundreds of thousands of agent locations, giving the network a distribution advantage that most native stablecoin projects lack.
The second product is the USD Stable Card, a payment card that allows consumers to hold and spend stablecoins globally. The card is scheduled to be launched later in 2026 across dozens of markets. The stable card is expected to serve as an easy-to-evaluate way to spend stablecoins, especially in inflation-sensitive markets. Western Union has not disclosed the specific launch markets or its card network partner for the fixed card.
Western Union enters the field of competition
Dollar-pegged stablecoins now exceed $300 billion in total market capitalization, and the GENIUS Act, signed into law in 2025, gave tokens issued in the United States a clearer regulatory basis. Western Union isn’t the only legacy payments company relying on Solana. PayPal’s PYUSD, issued by Paxos, has grown to the multi-billion dollar range. Fiserv is launching its own Solana-based stablecoin, FIUSD. MoneyGram has also integrated Circle’s USDC into the Stellar blockchain for its mobile app, and Visa has expanded stablecoin settlement support to Solana.
Solana processing $650 billion in adjusted stablecoin volume in a single month earlier this year, making it one of the fastest-growing settlement networks in terms of transaction volume.
The pilot during launch in several selected countries will be the first test of whether USDPT can reduce settlement costs and processing times significantly enough to justify an infrastructure transformation and make an impact on the competition. The identities of the initial agent partners and DAN’s first wallet integration, along with The Stable Card’s launch markets and network partner, have not been disclosed.
These details will determine whether Western Union’s stablecoin strategy will reach the tangible scale and achieve the impact the company has wanted since the launch announcement.
