USDPT is Western Union's first US-dollar stablecoin, issued by Anchorage Digital Bank N.A. on Solana. Per Anchorage Digital's public material, Anchorage Digital Bank "mints and redeems" USDPT and is described in the launch coverage as the federally regulated issuer. Western Union announced USDPT in an October 28, 2025 investor-relations press release; per CoinDesk and other outlets, the token went live on Solana on May 4, 2026.
​

This article walks through the issuance partnership: what Anchorage Digital is, what its OCC national trust charter means in public material, what each party does, and how the Anchorage-as-issuer model compares structurally with Bridge-as-issuer (for MoneyGram's MGUSD) and Circle-as-issuer (for USDC).
​

Anchorage Digital is a US digital-asset financial services firm whose subsidiary, Anchorage Digital Bank N.A., holds a national trust bank charter from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Per the OCC's January 13, 2021 announcement, the agency conditionally approved Anchorage Trust Company's conversion to a national trust bank, making it the first such charter granted to a digital-asset firm. The conversion closed on January 19, 2021.
​

The parent firm was founded in 2017 by Nathan McCauley and Diogo Mónica. Anchorage Digital Bank N.A. is the federally chartered subsidiary that performs the regulated banking activities. In a 2025 company post, Anchorage said its 2022 OCC consent order had been lifted. Banking Dive reported in 2025 that the OCC has since approved similar national trust charters for several other crypto firms, so the "first federally chartered digital asset bank" language is accurate as of January 2021 but the field is no longer Anchorage-only.
​

Per the company's public material and the OCC approval order, Anchorage Digital Bank N.A.'s permitted activities include qualified custody of digital and fiat assets, on-chain governance services, staking services, settlement services, and stablecoin issuance services. The OCC's 2021 conditional-approval order specifies that the bank does not engage in lending or accept deposits from the general public; its fiat handling sub-custodies with FDIC-insured deposit institutions.
​

Anchorage describes a "regulated stablecoin platform" that supports both issuance and custody arrangements. Past stablecoin work referenced in public material spans custody and settlement services for various third-party issuers. The USDPT mandate is the most prominent public assignment where Anchorage Digital Bank is the named issuer, per Ledger Insights.
​

Per the launch coverage, Anchorage Digital Bank N.A. is the issuer of record for USDPT, handling minting, redemption, and oversight of the dollar reserves backing the token. Per Decrypt's May 4, 2026 coverage, Anchorage Digital CEO Nathan McCauley framed the partnership this way: "Stablecoins have always promised faster, more efficient money movement, but scaling them into real payment networks requires more than technology. It requires regulatory alignment and operational rigor. As a federally chartered bank, we provide that foundation, allowing USDPT to function as trusted, always-on financial infrastructure from day one."
​

The specific configuration of USDPT on Solana, including the SPL token program version and any Token 2022 extensions enabled, is not detailed in either primary release as of June 2026. Solana's general SPL token mechanics are documented at solana.com/docs/tokens. The launch material describes USDPT as one-to-one reserve-backed by US dollars, with Anchorage as issuer of record. Coverage from American Banker, Decrypt, and CoinDesk also references U.S. Bank in a custody role for reserve assets, though the Western Union investor-relations release does not name a reserve custodian explicitly; we surface that with attribution.
​

Western Union is the network operator and distribution brand. It owns the corridor relationships, the retail and digital touchpoints, and the consumer product layer that includes the planned Stable by Western Union product. The Western Union release describes USDPT as the settlement asset behind a Digital Asset Network (DAN), a set of partnerships with wallets and wallet providers that gives customers cash off-ramps for digital assets through Western Union's physical network. The release states Stable by Western Union will launch in over 40 countries in 2026.
​

Western Union's own footprint, per its 2024 annual report and investor materials, spans more than 200 countries and territories, with agent-location counts reported in the range of 400,000 to 600,000 depending on the disclosure year and methodology. The launch release positions USDPT as the settlement layer that connects that physical network to onchain liquidity.
​

This is a structural comparison, not a ranking. Three named-issuer USD stablecoins associated with payments or remittance networks in 2026 use three different issuer models. The table below summarizes the postures.

Each issuance model places the regulatory anchor at a different point in the stack. Anchorage Digital Bank N.A. is a US national trust bank under direct OCC supervision. Bridge, per bridge.xyz, is a stablecoin platform owned by Stripe that offers issuance and orchestration for third-party token launches. Circle operates through multiple regulated subsidiaries and publishes monthly reserve transparency reports. None of these is "the right" model. Each fits a different network shape.
​

Per Anchorage's public material, Anchorage Digital Bank N.A. has provided custody and reserve-management services for several stablecoin programs over the years. USDPT is, per the launch coverage, the most prominent public assignment where Anchorage is the named issuer of record rather than a custodian or service provider behind another issuer.
​

Broader 2025 to 2026 coverage of US stablecoin issuance, including American Banker reporting, frames Anchorage Digital Bank N.A. as one of a small set of US chartered entities that institutions can hire to issue a US-dollar stablecoin. Other named entities in that set include Paxos (a New York-chartered trust company) and Bridge (the platform model behind MGUSD). The set is small, the regulatory shapes differ, and the fit-for-purpose question is customer-specific.
​

The launch material frames the federal charter as one of the reasons Western Union selected Anchorage. Per Decrypt's coverage, Western Union CEO Devin McGranahan stated: "USDPT reinforces Western Union's role as a global payments platform. By integrating a regulated digital dollar directly into our network, we're creating a more efficient settlement layer." McCauley's quote on Anchorage's federal charter being the regulatory "foundation" pairs with that framing.
​

The structural reasoning visible in the public material runs in three steps. First, a national trust bank charter places the issuer under direct OCC supervision, which the launch material describes as a regulatory feature. Second, a regulated issuer with a defined custodial and reserve regime can integrate into a large fiat-to-digital flow without rebuilding compliance infrastructure on top of an unregulated counterparty. Third, the broader US stablecoin legislative environment, including the GENIUS Act (see Eco's GENIUS Act overview), references federally chartered issuers as one contemplated path for compliant US-dollar stablecoin issuance. The USDPT release does not explicitly invoke the GENIUS Act.
​

None of this is the same as saying that an Anchorage-issued stablecoin is "safer," "better," or "more trusted" than peer issuance models. The structural fit is a description. Bridge-issued and Circle-issued stablecoins each fit different network shapes and different customer requirements.
​

USDPT is, per the launch release, a Solana-native asset at launch. Active stablecoin liquidity sits across Ethereum, Solana, Stellar, Base, Arbitrum, and other chains. Bridging and intent layers move stablecoins across chains today using protocols like Circle's CCTP for USDC, native bridges for issuer-controlled tokens, and intent-routing layers for general cross-chain user flows. Eco Routes is one such intent-routing layer that could compose with USDPT, MGUSD, USDC, or other stablecoin rails to give users a single intent surface across chains and assets. Whether USDPT will be bridged to additional chains beyond Solana is not specified in the launch material as of June 2026.
​

Public material describes the issuer (Anchorage Digital Bank N.A.), the network (Solana), the launch date (May 4, 2026), the consumer product (Stable by Western Union, in 40+ countries in 2026), and the existence of a Digital Asset Network. What is not yet detailed publicly includes USDPT's specific SPL token program version, the reserve attestation cadence and provider, the named DAN wallet partners at launch, the exchange listing schedule, and the precise corridor list for the consumer product rollout.
​

The release describes the issuance stack but does not specify several mechanics that customers and integrators may want before building against the token. Where secondary coverage fills those gaps, we attribute to the secondary source. Figures refresh as the rollout proceeds.
​

USDPT issuance facts come from two primary sources: Western Union's October 28, 2025 investor-relations release at ir.westernunion.com and the Anchorage Digital launch material referenced in Decrypt's May 4, 2026 coverage. The May 4, 2026 launch date is cross-referenced across CoinDesk, Decrypt, and American Banker. Anchorage's OCC national trust charter is documented in the OCC's January 13, 2021 release (NR-OCC-2021-6). Partner-general mechanics come from anchorage.com and solana.com. USDPT-specific mechanics not in the primary releases are flagged as such throughout. This article carries no safety, compliance, or investment verdicts on any named party.
​