Stronghold announced the first and only venture-backed USD Anchor on the Stellar Network, an open-source protocol for value exchange. The ‘Stronghold USD’ token is asset-backed (at one-to-one US dollars per coin) with reserves held by a state-chartered trust company.
The company described itself as a financial institution building an asset-agnostic global payment and trade ecosystem. It recently raised seed funding from Freestyle Capital, and will use Stellar’s blockchain protocol to issue and transact Stronghold USD while providing access to liquidity through its institutional exchange services and the custodial relationship with its partnered trust company.
In addition, IBM will be exploring uses for Stronghold USD within blockchain business networks on the IBM Blockchain Platform. The aim is to experiment with ways for financial institutions and other organizations to achieve faster, safer and more efficient transaction processing and money transfer throughout the world’s economy.
Jesse Lund, global vice president of IBM Blockchain said in a statement: “New types of fiat-backed instruments, like Stronghold’s USD token, have the potential to improve the backbone of international banking operations and payments, giving banks an easier way to integrate with public blockchain networks without significant changes to their core banking and compliance infrastructure.”
IBM is working with banks and non-bank financial institutions to apply blockchain to modernize the multi-trillion-dollar industry of cross-border payments and correspondent banking. As part of those efforts, IBM is exploring ways to integrate tokens, like Stronghold USD, as settlement instruments within the networks it is developing and delivering to its clients on the IBM Blockchain Platform, particularly those requiring real-time international payments.