Western Union’s USDPT Stablecoin Becomes a Settlement Option on Visa, Anchorage Digital Says

In this news:

Key takeaways

Western Union's USDPT stablecoin can now be used by Visa and eligible partners to settle VisaNet balances.
Anchorage Digital, which mints USDPT through its federally chartered bank, announced the integration.
Visa's stablecoin settlement program has been running above $25 billion annually.

Visa Adds USDPT for Settlement

Banks and payment companies on both sides of a card purchase, those that issue cards and those that sign up merchants, regularly settle what they owe with Visa. Visa lets some of them settle those balances, which it calls VisaNet obligations after its payment-processing network, in stablecoins, crypto tokens pegged to a currency such as the U.S. dollar. The transfers run on blockchains Visa supports, the company explained in December 2025.

Western Union’s USDPT is now one of the tokens they can use. Anchorage Digital, whose federally chartered bank mints USDPT for Western Union, announced on Nov. 12 that Visa and eligible partners now have the option to settle their VisaNet balances with it. A stablecoin issuer is the company that creates the tokens and backs them; Anchorage said each of its coins is backed by dollars and cash equivalents and can be redeemed one for one.

USDPT joins five stablecoins Visa said on its Oct. 27 earnings call it already supports for settlement (USDC, USDG, EURC, PYUSD and SBC), according to a third-party transcript of the call.

What Visa Has Said

Visa and Western Union have not put out their own statements on the deal. Visa’s only comment came from Dan Roesbery, Vice President, Global Crypto Partnerships & GTM (go-to-market) at Visa.

“As stablecoin payments grow, we’re focused on providing more choice for our partners in how they settle with Visa,” Roesbery said in Anchorage’s release. He said in the same release that supporting USDPT gives Visa’s partners “another trusted, institution-grade option backed by a federally chartered bank.”

Nathan McCauley, Anchorage’s Co-Founder and CEO, said in the release that “speed alone won’t bring institutions onchain,” meaning onto blockchains, and added, “They need a regulated institution behind the money.”

Visa is among Anchorage’s investors, according to the release.

What Is Not Yet Known

The release does not say which of Visa’s supported blockchains the USDPT settlements will use or which partners qualify as eligible. USDPT went live on Solana in May, following plans Western Union laid out in April.

Anchorage said the arrangement gives the two companies a way to explore support for more of its stablecoins later. Its bank also issues USAT for Tether, USDtb for Ethena Labs, USDGO for OSL Group, fUSD for Falcon Finance and ZLUSD for Zelle, but the release does not say whether Visa will take any of them.

Visa said on the Oct. 27 call that its stablecoin settlement was running above $25 billion a year on an annualized basis, up from the more than $20 billion it cited on Sept. 8, and that it supports 10 blockchains for settlement. On Nov. 10, the Monad Foundation said its chain had become a settlement option in Visa’s program.

Source: unchainedcrypto.com

Share the article: