Western Union will distribute a Solana-based stablecoin to its 100 million-plus customers starting in the first half of 2026, pairing Anchorage Digital Bank’s federally regulated issuance with a global on/off-ramp network that converts crypto wallet balances to local cash.

Announced on Oct. 28, this model challenges the neutral-infrastructure strategies deployed by Visa and Stripe.

The US Dollar Payment Token represents a test of whether vertical integration can bring blockchain remittances to mass adoption, where crypto-native protocols have struggled to gain retail traction.

Solana processes USDC transfers at sub-cent costs and settles in seconds, yet most cross-border senders still route payments through traditional money transfer operators or correspondent banking networks.

Western Union’s plan embeds Solana rails inside a branded product with physical distribution, betting that control over issuance, compliance, and cash access will overcome the adoption barriers that have kept stablecoin remittances confined to crypto users.

End-to-end settlement versus neutral rails

Visa and Stripe built stablecoin infrastructure as open platforms that enable third parties to issue tokens and transact across multi-chain networks.

Visa integrated USDC settlement on Ethereum in 2021, then expanded to Solana in 2023, allowing merchant acquirers, including Worldpay and Nuvei, to settle with Visa in stablecoin.

The company added support for PYUSD, Paxos’ USDG, Circle’s euro stablecoin, and the Stellar and Avalanche networks in July 2025, po

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Author: Gino Matos