World Liberty Financial (WLFI), a cryptocurrency company involving the Trump family, has issued its stablecoin USD1 in native form on the Canton Network. It has laid the groundwork for using USD1 as a means of payment in the institutional tokenised asset market.

CoinPost, a blockchain media outlet, reported on Aug. 26 that the launch will allow institutions handling tokenised real-world assets (RWA) on the Canton Network to process payments and fund transfers using USD1. World Liberty Financial expects the move to support expansion of the institution-focused RWA tokenisation market.

More than $9 trillion in tokenised assets are issued and processed on Canton each month, it was reported. On the network, RWAs such as government bonds are used for collateral, repo transactions and treasury operations. Existing financial structures have limits, including settlement taking time, capital being tied up during transactions and institutions needing to arrange separate liquidity.

World Liberty Financial explained that USD1 can reduce these problems. It said it provides a dollar-equivalent settlement instrument that allows transaction participants to deliver assets and pay at the same time, enabling exchange of assets and cash to be processed in an integrated form. The process can also use the privacy and compliance features provided by Canton.

USD1 is focused on institutional finance. It can be used as collateral in derivatives trading and lending, for international payments 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, for on-chain asset issuance, for subscriptions and redemptions of funds, and for fundraising. The key is building payments infrastructure that allows institutions to use cash-like assets in on-chain financial markets, rather than simply adding another stablecoin.

Eric Saraniyecki (에릭 사라니에키), head of network strategy at Digital Asset, which developed Canton, said markets with high liquidity and efficiency need a range of choices for both sides of a transaction. He said enabling a native stablecoin on Canton could make it more flexible for institutions to secure liquidity across applications and markets and to handle settlement and fund transfers.

Saraniyecki said USD1 would strengthen the cash infrastructure supporting RWAs and institutional financial operations expanding on Canton. He said the launch can be seen less as a simple stablecoin issuance than as a move to add a means of payment for institutional on-chain financial markets.

World Liberty Financial also signalled additional announcements this week on its official X account, formerly known as Twitter. It has not yet disclosed specifics.

Canton is a relatively new blockchain, but it is expanding use cases in institutional finance. It has raised funding from a16z Crypto, Goldman Sachs and SBI Group, among others, and has recently broadened its use through a proof-of-concept processing Japanese government bond repo transactions on blockchain.

On Aug. 13, four companies including Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) announced they would begin a proof-of-concept experiment with Digital Asset and Progmat to process Japanese government bond repo transactions on blockchain. The Canton Network is also set to be used in the process.

The introduction of USD1 on Canton is expected to be a test case of whether it can broaden use beyond inter-institution payments to wider on-chain financial operations, including collateral management and settlement of tokenised assets and fundraising.