U.S. Bank launched a pilot program to issue a stablecoin on the Stellar network in collaboration with PwC and the Stellar Development Foundation, reopening the debate around Stellar’s institutional relevance and its potential to drive a recovery in XLM. The October 2023 proof-of-concept positioned public blockchains as viable rails for regulated banking infrastructure and framed expectations for how quickly institutional adoption might translate into market value.
Pilot highlights Stellar’s regulatory-oriented architecture and bank-grade tokenization features
The pilot showcased Stellar’s compliance-friendly features, including “asset freeze,” multisig accounts and on-chain controls suited for regulated issuances. The participation of U.S. Bank —the fifth largest bank in the U.S.— along with PwC and the Stellar Development Foundation served as practical validation of Stellar’s capabilities for treasury and regulatory use.
Institutional issuance on a public network contrasts with private blockchain models by reducing infrastructure costs for cross-border payments and RWA tokenization. This structure reinforces XLM’s function as a bridge asset in the Stellar DEX, linking institutional token minting with the possibility of deeper liquidity if issuance scales.
The market response did not yield immediate price appreciation. Reports from October 2023 show XLM near $0.25 during the announcement, with a daily decline of roughly 2.9%, circulating supply of 31–32 billion tokens and a market cap close to $9 billion on volume of $175–192 million. These metrics illustrate that institutional developments may not translate instantly into market pricing when macro and Bitcoin dynamics dominate directional movement.
For traders and corporate treasuries, short-term effects remain uncertain. Demand for XLM could rise as a bridge asset if issuance expands, but outcomes depend on adoption depth, pilot scalability and participation by additional issuers. Risks include continued volatility, macro influence and the possibility that the program remains experimental without evolving into recurring transactional flow. Recovery scenarios projected in public debate —$0.32–$0.35 by late 2025— are conditional and non-linear, relying on measurable growth in issuance and network usage.
U.S. Bank’s pilot on Stellar strengthens the narrative of the network as a regulated-issuance ecosystem but does not guarantee immediate price repricing. Sustained impact will depend on a transition from testing to consistent on-chain issuance, volume expansion and replication by additional institutions.