- Western Union is piloting stablecoin-based settlement to speed cross-border transfers and improve liquidity management.
- CEO Devin McGranahan cited new U.S. clarity under the GENIUS Act as a catalyst for the trials.
- Early tests focus on treasury operations and select corridors, aiming to reduce reliance on correspondent banks.
- Rivals like MoneyGram and Zelle are also moving into stablecoin rails, signaling broader industry adoption.
Western Union has begun experimenting with stablecoin-based settlement as part of a broader push to refresh its global remittance infrastructure. The move aims to make international money movement faster, more transparent and less costly for a network that serves more than 150 million customers in over 200 countries.
On the company’s third-quarter earnings call, CEO Devin McGranahan said Western Union is running pilots that use on-chain settlement rails to streamline cross-border flows and improve liquidity management. While the company previously took a cautious stance on crypto due to volatility and unclear rules, its posture has shifted alongside U.S. regulatory developments.
What Western Union is piloting
The current trials concentrate on internal treasury use cases, where blockchain settlement can reduce reliance on correspondent banks, shorten settlement windows and improve capital efficiency. In practice, that means moving value between entities more quickly, with clearer visibility on funds and fewer intermediaries involved.
McGranahan noted that the company is also exploring how its global network could serve as a fiat-to-digital on/off-ramp, working with digital-native partners that want to tap Western Union’s distribution in underbanked regions. Initial pilots are expected to run in select corridors, including parts of South America and Africa, where low-cost remittances are in high demand.
The company processes about 70 million transfers per quarter, making operational gains at even small percentages meaningful at scale. By using blockchain rails for settlement, Western Union is targeting improvements in speed, transparency and unit economics without compromising on compliance or customer trust.
As McGranahan put it, the initiative is not about speculation; it’s about giving customers more choice and control over how they manage and move their money. That includes creating optionality in markets where people often juggle volatile local currencies and limited access to traditional banking.
We see real opportunities to move money faster, with greater transparency and lower cost, while maintaining compliance and the trust our customers expect, the CEO said on the call.
Why regulation is opening the door
Western Union’s pivot follows the approval of the U.S. GENIUS Act, which clarified federal rules for issuing and using stablecoins. This clearer framework has given traditional payment firms more confidence to run controlled pilots and evaluate production-grade integrations.
Industry momentum is another factor. The stablecoin segment has recently been cited as surpassing $300 billion in circulating value, and some outlooks see potential for the market to scale significantly by 2028. For a legacy remittance provider, the combination of policy clarity and market maturity helps justify measured, compliance-first experimentation.
How the pilot could change cross-border flows
Stablecoin settlement can compress multi-day processes into near-real-time movement, especially when it replaces stretches of the correspondent banking chain. With on-chain traceability, operations teams get better end-to-end visibility, and treasurers can optimize where working capital sits globally.
Western Union says the pilots are designed to preserve KYC/AML and sanctions controls while lowering friction. That balance is crucial in remittances, where compliance obligations are strict and the customer base depends on predictable, reliable service.
- Faster settlement: cutting multi-day timelines to hours or minutes in some corridors
- Greater transparency: auditable on-chain movement for improved reconciliation
- Capital efficiency: less idle liquidity tied up across accounts and regions
- Lower costs: fewer intermediaries and reduced processing overhead
Impact on customers in high-inflation markets
For senders and receivers in countries with elevated inflation or currency controls, access to dollar-linked value can be especially useful. Western Union emphasized that offering regulated, stable-value options aligns with its broader strategy to modernize how money moves—without forcing customers into speculative assets.
The company is also expanding digital wallet capabilities across Latin America, Africa and Southeast Asia. These efforts complement the stablecoin pilots by creating more flexible endpoints for storing and transferring value in markets where traditional banking access remains limited.
The competitive backdrop
Rivals are making similar moves. MoneyGram supports USDC in parts of its network and has previewed crypto features in new markets, while Early Warning Services, operator of Zelle, has discussed plans to integrate stablecoins for cross-border use cases linked to U.S. flows. Remitly has meanwhile rolled out a multicurrency wallet that can handle both fiat and digital tokens.
Taken together, these developments point to an industry shift in which stablecoins act as back-end settlement rails, even when customers still receive funds in familiar forms like cash pickup or local bank deposits.
What remains unknown and next steps
Western Union has not disclosed which stablecoins or blockchains are involved in its testing, nor the exact timeline for customer-facing rollouts. Early stages focus on internal treasury operations, with broader availability depending on pilot results, regulatory approvals and partner readiness across specific corridors.
For now, the company’s stance is intentionally measured: prove out operational and compliance viability, extend where the data supports it and integrate with existing rails in a way that preserves the reliability customers expect from a century-old remittance brand.
While it’s early days, the direction is clear. With the GENIUS Act providing a policy backbone, growing institutional comfort and maturing infrastructure, Western Union’s stablecoin pilots signal a pragmatic step toward faster, cheaper and more transparent cross-border settlement at global scale.
Western Union is testing a path that could bring modern settlement rails to one of the world’s largest remittance footprints, pairing regulatory discipline with practical use of blockchain to improve speed, visibility and cost—without asking customers to change how they live, send or receive money.
