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Western Union’s CEO and president, Devin McGranahan, has confirmed the company’s Solana-based USDPT is in its “final stages” of preparation and is expected to go live next month.
USDPT, short for U.S. Dollar Payment Token, is a dollar-backed digital asset built on Solana and issued by Anchorage Digital, a federally regulated bank. Crossmint is providing the technical backbone, including cryptocurrency wallets and payment application programming interfaces that connect USDPT directly into Western Union’s existing infrastructure.
McGranahan said USDPT will plug into Western Union’s network of 360,000 cash pickup locations across 190+ countries. Users will be able to send, receive, spend, and hold USDPT through Western Union’s existing platform, with no wire delays.
Western Union has operated as a payments network for more than 175 years and is preparing to launch USDPT as part of its broader push to connect digital assets to cash off-ramps. The token was first announced in October 2025 alongside Western Union’s Digital Asset Network, described as a last-mile solution for connecting digital asset holders to the company’s global cash off-ramp infrastructure.
According to the company’s description, a sender settling a transaction in USDPT on Solana can direct the recipient to collect local currency at any of Western Union’s agent locations across 190+ countries, aiming to bypass cross-border wire transfer delays.
McGranahan did not disclose an exact launch date beyond the “next month” timeline confirmed on Monday. Western Union has not yet published fee structures or interchange arrangements for USDPT transactions.
The USDPT launch comes as stablecoin adoption accelerates across retail and institutional payment corridors. The article notes that stablecoins have increasingly displaced traditional wire transfers in emerging and frontier markets, citing data that stablecoins accounted for more than $6.9 billion in crypto purchases in Brazil during the first quarter of 2026.
Research from TRM Labs is also cited as showing stablecoins as a primary vehicle for dollarization in economies facing currency instability, with Venezuela identified as among the most active adoption markets.
Western Union’s entry is positioned as especially relevant because of its existing footprint in markets where access to traditional banking can be limited. With 360,000 agent locations spanning those regions, USDPT could function as an everyday on-ramp and off-ramp for populations that rely on cash, extending beyond the typical stablecoin use case of institutional settlement.
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