Western Union Deploys USDPT on Bybit's Fiat Channels in Latin America

Western Union has made its USDPT stablecoin available on Bybit's fiat channels in Latin America, the two companies announced Thursday.

Bybit, which describes itself as the world's second-largest crypto exchange by trading volume with over 80 million users, is the first major crypto exchange to integrate USDPT.

Through the integration, users in selected Latin American markets can buy USDPT with local fiat currencies on Bybit, or convert holdings back to local currency at any time. The time from purchase to fiat off-ramp drops from days to minutes, per the joint announcement.

The move extends Western Union's digital-asset strategy beyond its own agent network. Western Union launched USDPT on Solana on May 4, positioning it as a 24/7 settlement layer across a payments network spanning more than 200 countries and territories.

Remittance Giants Racing to Own the Stablecoin Rail

The Bybit integration arrives as Western Union's direct competitors move onto the same rails. MoneyGram launched MGUSD on Stellar on June 2, two days before Thursday's announcement. MGUSD is issued by Stripe-owned Bridge and targets MoneyGram's 60 million active customers across nearly 500,000 retail locations.

Stripe's Bridge also deployed USDB in 2025 for business accounts across 101 countries; Deel used the same stack to pay 1.5 million independent contractors in DLUSD, starting in Latin America.

That makes two legacy remittance incumbents now running proprietary dollar stablecoins on public blockchains within the same week. The pattern is consistent: each operator wants to own the dollar float that previously accrued to Tether or Circle as its corridors moved funds.

USDPT does not yet appear in the top 20 stablecoins by circulating market cap, per DefiLlama. USDT and USDC lead at $187 billion and $76 billion respectively. The remittance-native tokens are competing for corridor volume rather than broad DeFi liquidity at this stage.

USDPT's Architecture and Issuer

USDPT is issued by Anchorage Digital Bank N.A., the first federally chartered crypto bank in the United States, on the Solana blockchain. It is backed 1:1 by U.S. dollar reserves. Fireblocks powers the agent-settlement capability across Western Union's distribution network.

"By connecting our global payout infrastructure with a major crypto platform, we're enabling more seamless movement between digital value and real-world money," Malcolm Clarke, Head of Digital Assets at Western Union, said in the announcement. "This is where we see the future of settlement heading: always-on, programmable, and integrated across both traditional and digital financial systems."

For Bybit, the integration positions the exchange as the fiat gateway into Western Union's stablecoin network. "Bybit and Western Union are setting a new standard for real-world crypto adoption in Latin America," said Patricio Mesri, Bybit's Country Manager for Spanish-speaking Latin America.

The LATAM Angle

Latin America is the strategic entry point for both sides. High inflation in Argentina and Venezuela has driven demand for dollar-denominated digital balances among consumers who can access stablecoins on exchange fiat ramps. Mexico is the world's second-largest remittance-receiving country by dollar volume, with the U.S.–Mexico corridor processing tens of billions annually.

Western Union has also disclosed that USDPT will anchor "Stable by Western Union," a direct consumer spending product set to launch across 40 or more countries in 2026. The Bybit fiat channel is the first named exchange in what Western Union calls its "Global Exchange Support" pillar — one of four USDPT-enabled use cases alongside agent treasury settlement, a Digital Asset Network for licensed custodians, and the consumer spend product.