Western Union (NYSE: WU) today announced it has selected Fireblocks, the enterprise platform securing more than $14 trillion in digital asset transactions, to provide the core infrastructure behind USDPT, Western Union’s U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin. Fireblocks’ platform, along with Dynamic’s embedded wallet and TRES’ financial platform, both recently acquired by Fireblocks, will power Western Union’s ability to settle with agents in USDPT across Western Union’s global network this year.
Western Union has built its business on giving people fast, reliable access to money across borders. USDPT carries that legacy onto stablecoin rails. Fireblocks provides the unified infrastructure that lets Western Union operate USDPT at scale and better serve customers who live in markets where access to U.S. dollars is limited, local currencies are volatile or formal banking is out of reach. With USDPT, they will be able to hold value in dollars, choose when and how to convert into local currency and use those balances for spending and transfers across Western Union’s network.
“Stablecoins are the foundation of how we deliver the next generation of settlement and consumer services in an evolving digital ecosystem,” said Malcolm Clarke, Global Head of Digital Assetsat Western Union. “It puts a programmable dollar into our vast ecosystem and provides Western Union a platform from where we can continue to deliver customer utility and value. Working with Fireblocks, Dynamic and TRES provide a key part of our infrastructure enabling us to operationalize safely and securely at scale from day one.”
The Infrastructure Powering USDPT
Western Union is building USDPT treasury operations on the Fireblocks platform, which delivers the wallet, settlement and financial operations layer required to launch a regulated stablecoin program across a global consumer network.
- Fireblocks is the treasury bridge giving Western Union end-to-end control over USDPT’s flow from treasury operations to tellers and consumers. The platform provides custody, policy controls and the Payments Engine for issuance and movement, with the Fireblocks Network connecting Western Union to 2,400+ institutional counterparties across 100+ countries for liquidity and settlement.
- Dynamic delivers the non-custodial embedded wallets that hold USDPT for Western Union’s agents. These secured wallets are the basis for the additional services WU could deploy over time..
- TRES consolidates onchain data from across Western Union’s USDPT stack, including wallet operations, treasury management and qualified custody, and translates it into the SWIFT MT940 and MT942 bank statement formats Western Union’s treasury and finance systems already run on. The output flows directly into existing financial reporting cycles, letting USDPT operate inside Western Union’s day-to-day reporting environment from launch.
“Remittance and cross-border payments are where stablecoin infrastructure proves its value in production,” said Ran Goldi, SVP Payments and Network at Fireblocks. “Western Union operates one of the most complex global money movement networks in the world. Operationalizing a digital dollar across that network requires wallet infrastructure, settlement connectivity, and financial operations that work with the systems Western Union already runs. That is what Fireblocks, Dynamic and TRES deliver together.”
Global Rollout
USDPT operations on Fireblocks will roll out initially across two markets, the Philippines and Bolivia, with expansion across Western Union’s global network through 2026. The rollout aligns with Western Union’s broader strategy to modernize its settlement infrastructure and strengthen its competitive position as the global payments industry moves onchain.
“Every major shift in financial services requires infrastructure that can keep pace,” said Michael Shaulov, CEO and Co-Founder of Fireblocks. “Western Union has operated the rails of global money movement for more than 170 years. Building USDPT on Fireblocks represents a generational modernization of that infrastructure, and we’re proud to be the platform they’ve chosen to build it on.”
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