Western Union files ‘WUUSD’ trademark, signaling move into stablecoins

Western Union filed a trademark application for “WUUSD,” a stablecoin product that would help the 175-year-old money transfer giant finally step into remittances with crypto wallets, trading, and lending services.

According to a filing submitted to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), seen by Cryptopolitan on Wednesday, Western Union applied to trademark the name “WUUSD” shortly after announcing plans to launch a USD-pegged stablecoin on the Solana blockchain in 2026. 

The agency has seemingly accepted the application, although it has yet to assign it to an examiner at the time of this report.

The application indicates that “WUUSD” may be used for several crypto-related services, including digital wallets, crypto trading, stablecoin payment processing, and lending. It lists “financial brokerage services for cryptocurrency trading” and “securities and derivatives exchange” under its proposed uses.

Western Union trademark filing mulls money transfers through blockchain tokens

Western Union formally introduced its stablecoin, the US Dollar Payment Token (USDPT), during an investor call on Thursday. However, the WUUSD trademark application and USDPT filing have made industry observers unsure if the two names refer to separate initiatives or the same stablecoin under different branding.

Western Union has also announced plans to develop a Digital Asset Network in partnership with Anchorage Digital Bank. The proposal laid by the global money transfer platform network is to make the DAN a cash off-ramp for customers using its upcoming stablecoin services, so users can convert crypto holdings into fiat currency through Western Union’s global network of agents.

“We are excited to announce our Digital Asset Network, a solution for the last mile of the crypto journey by partnering with wallets and wallet providers to provide customers with seamless access to cash off-ramps for digital assets by leveraging our global network,” President and CEO Devin McGranahan said in a presser held earlier this week.

McGranahan added that the company’s venture into stablecoins is in tandem with its long history of connecting people all around the world through technology.

“We are a long way from the telegraph, but the idea of connecting people and using technology to do it is deeply in our roots for 175 years. Moving into digital assets and stablecoins is just the next chapter in that long journey of connecting people through technology.”

US regulatory clarity pushes companies to embrace stablecoins

Western Union’s move into digital assets is a change in tone for the company, which had previously moved extra cautiously toward crypto due to the market’s price volatility and uncertain regulatory environment. 

McGranahan admitted that the emergence of dollar-pegged stablecoins and a clearer legal framework in the US have made the industry now more appealing. He pointed to the passage of the Genius Act, signed into law by President Donald Trump earlier this year. 

The act established a regulatory structure for stablecoins, requiring issuers to maintain full reserves in cash, short-term US Treasuries, or similarly secure assets. 

Traditional financial firms that preceded Western Union’s interest in the crypto market include PayPal, which introduced its own dollar-backed stablecoin, Paxos-Trust-backed PayPal USD (PYUSD), in 2023.

The Peter Thiel-founded company has since integrated the token into its remittance platform, Xoom, for users to send and receive payments using stablecoins.

MoneyGram, another long-standing competitor in the cross-border payments sector, launched a crypto wallet app in September that enables transactions in USD Coin (USDC), the world’s second-largest stablecoin issued by Circle Internet Financial. The app allows a limited group of users to store and convert digital dollars with just a few taps.

Cryptopolitan had reported last week that Zelle, the payments service owned by a consortium of major US banks, announced plans to enable international transfers using stablecoins. 

More than $10 billion worth of payments for goods, services, and money transfers were conducted using stablecoins in August, according to blockchain analytics firm Artemis. The tally is a rise from $6 billion recorded in February and doubles the transaction volume seen in August 2024.

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