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Action in the payments industry on stablecoin plans appears to be perking up since President Donald Trump signed the GENIUS Act into law this summer, legislation whose rules are expected to spark more action by mainstream payments players on issuing and accepting the digital currency.
One example emerged Wednesday with the news that Fiserv Inc., one of the world’s largest payments processors, will work with Bank of North Dakota on a stablecoin venture called the Roughrider coin. The venture, which involves a state stablecoin, represents the first such collaboration to launch on Fiserv’s digital-asset platform, the company says.
The new coin is expected to be widely available to financial institutions in the state next year, though a more specific date was not immediately available. Fiserv and the state expect the product will have three objectives, including boosting bank-to-bank transactions along with merchant adoption, as well as fostering global money movement. Later, the venture may introduce consumer stablecoin accounts and cross-border transfers, Fiserv says.
The venture with North Dakota relies on infrastructure that supports Fiserv’s own stablecoin, FIUSD, which the big processor launched in June. Fiserv is a core-banking vendor to the Bank of North Dakota. The bank’s “unique regulatory structure and the role it plays for its state banks and credit unions presented an opportunity to build a digital asset ecosystem that would be hard to replicate in other states,” Fiserv says in response to queries from Digital Transactions News. The Roughrider coin is expected to be interoperable with other coins, Fiserv says.
The Bank of North Dakota sees embedded banking and digital assets becoming “a larger part of the banking landscape over time,” says a Fiserv spokesperson.
Stablecoins are cryptocurrency generated by a blockchain, much as Bitcoin and other digital assets are developed. In contrast to Bitcoin, stablecoins are pegged to fiat money such as the U.S. dollar, and so avoid the turbulent swings in value seen with other crypto assets. This stability, along with the speed and convenience of stablecoin transactions, has begun to attract interest in mainstream finance, including among banks.
“The development of the Roughrider coin…capitalizes on changes in federal law and ensures the continued health, resilience, and relevancy of the North Dakota financial industry for its citizens,” said Don Morgan, Bank of North Dakota’s chief executive, in a statement.
The roughrider coin is said to honor Theodore Roosevelt, who led a volunteer cavalry unit during the Spanish-American War and later wrote book about his experiences called “the Rough Riders.” Roosevelt became President of the United States in 1901 upon the assassination of Wiliam McKinley.
In related news, San Francisco-based Anchorage Digital Bank has chosen U.S. Bank as custodian for the reserves behind Anchorage’s payment stablecoins. Anchorage launched its stablecoin-issuance platform in July following passage of the GENIUS Act.
And Citi Ventures, the investment arm of Citicorp, said it has made an unspecified “strategic investment” in BVNK, a technology provider for stablecoin transactions. BVNK processes $20 billion annually in volume, the company says.
