One of the US’ oldest banks, Western Union, continues to embrace stablecoins after launching a dedicated credit card and digital wallet to support its native stablecoin; USDPT.
Western Union has launched a dedicated stablecoin payment card to support USDPT and enable its customers to spend digital dollars globally.
Built in partnership with Rain, a fintech firm that specialised in stablecoin to fiat currency conversions, the Visa-branded credit card will allow Western Union customers to hold, move and spend stablecoins.
The stablecoin card, labelled Stablecard, supports payments at merchants and online checkouts wherever Visa is accepted in 37 markets. There is a focus on rolling out the card in countries where its currency is prone to volatility. Western Union is aiming for Stablecard to be active in more than 60 markets by the end of 2026.
At the heart of the card’s development is USDPT, Western Union’s recently launched native stablecoin. USDPT is backed 1:1 with full US dollar reserves and the card will allow holders to receive funds and store value in USDPT.
Devin McGranahan, President and CEO of Western Union, said: “Stablecard represents the next step in making global financial services more accessible to our customers.
“By combining the stability of a dollar-backed digital asset with the scale of Western Union’s global network and Visa’s acceptance footprint, we’re giving consumers a new way to hold value, move money and spend confidently across borders.”
A supporting digital wallet
Alongside the physical credit card, Stablecard is also launching a dedicated digital wallet to house USDPT.
The Stablecard mobile app will support the digital wallet which users can access to hold, transfer and view spending insights all from within the app. Users can also send and receive funds using USDPT.
The Stablecard digital wallet will also support payments where Visa is accepted in the 37 markets it will be rolled out to, which is also compatible with Apple Pay and Google Pay.
Rain’s network supporting infrastructure
In a statement, Rain revealed it was selected to support Western Union’s Stablecard via a formal process that judged it against the same standards it uses for its traditional remittance services.
As an existing Visa Principle Member, Rain has a presence in more than 200 countries as an infrastructure provider to issue stablecoin payment cards which settle transactions on its network.
Rain handles the backend conversions – stablecoin-to-fiat and vice versa – while also supporting stablecoin payments via digital wallets. The company also uses a unified API to lend its regulatory licenses to other financial institutions to leverage for compliance.
Farooq Malik, CEO and Co-Founder of Rain, said: “Western Union is putting stablecoin efficiency in the hands of people who have never thought about on-chain money and never need to.
“With Rain’s enterprise infrastructure underneath both the wallet and card, users enjoy a modern experience that just works with all of the compliance and protections built in.”
New remittance capital opportunities
As stablecoins are often viewed as a cost-effective alternative to traditional cross-border payments with fiat currencies, this also makes it cheaper for remittances.
Despite a Bank of Italy report recently pushing back on this, traditional cross-border remittances run on prefunding, according to Rain, whilst stablecoins do not require prefunding as they enable idle liquidity to be moved instantly as opposed to the several working day settlement times used in traditional remittance.
Rain believes Western Union’s Stablecard opens up a new capital-efficient business for the US bank, as remittance friction can be eliminated with instant cross-border payment capabilities, while having the flexibility to move liquidity reserves elsewhere.
Western Union said in a statement it “designed the Stablecard to be intuitive and accessible to a broad range of customers, including remittance receivers and everyday spenders seeking greater control over how and when they use their funds”.
