Telegraph Pioneer Saddles up to offer Stablecoin with Solana and Anchorage

Western Union has announced plans to launch the U.S. Dollar Payment Token (USDPT), a dollar-pegged stablecoin, on the Solana blockchain in the first half of 2026. The token will be issued by Anchorage Digital, a federally chartered digital asset bank, and integrated into Western Union’s global payment network.

The initiative pairs Western Union’s cross-border infrastructure with Solana’s high-throughput public ledger and Anchorage’s regulated issuance framework. Users will access USDPT through partner exchanges and leverage Western Union’s retail locations for fiat on- and off-ramps via a companion Digital Asset Network.

Devin McGranahan, Western Union’s President and CEO, said:

As we evolve into the digital assets space, Western Union’s USDPT will allow us to own the economics linked to stablecoins. Separately, we are excited to announce our Digital Asset Network, a solution for the last mile of the crypto journey by partnering with wallets and wallet providers to provide customers with seamless access to cash off-ramps for digital assets by leveraging our global network.

Solana’s official account on X said:

Western Union is bringing USDPT to Solana—unlocking fast, low-cost global payments for 100M+ users. Built with @Anchorage, this is real-world utility at scale.

There was an initial report that Solana had contributed US $25M plus US $25M in liquidity to seal the deal, but that tweet was deleted after Solana corrected the records - something was paid it seems, which is not unusual (but which has been criticised by many online), but the amount is not known:

The move arrives alongside the GENIUS Act in the US establishing a federal framework for payment stablecoins and encourages reserve composition in cash and short-term Treasuries.

By routing settlements through a public chain, Western Union can reduce correspondent banking friction while maintaining auditability for regulators. With a huge reach of physical offices and longstanding brand, Western Union might bring savings as well as greater relevance to their business.

Ripple’s XRP Ledger, already used by Western Union via its Intermex subsidiary for on-demand liquidity, faces direct competition in the remittance corridor and raises a question of why XRP's stablecoin RLUSD isn't being integrated as a faster path.

The parallel deployment of USDPT on Solana highlights diverging technical choices among legacy providers, but both approaches expand the addressable market for on-chain dollars and could see the better stablecoin ultimately win. Each incremental integration strengthens network effects: more issuers, wallets, and endpoints increase the practical utility of stablecoins, accelerating their convergence with traditional payment rails and supporting broader institutional adoption.

By Michael Bacina