(27 November 2025 – United States) Klarna is launching a new Stablecoin alongside testing by US Bank for crypto custody and stablecoin payments as the latest players endorsing digital tokens as a driving force for reshaping cross border payments in the footsteps of PayPal, Stripe, Visa Direct, Wise and Revolut.
Swedish Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) lender Klarna has launched KlarnaUSD on a blockchain created by Stripe to use as a digital token for international payments. Klarna envisions that the stablecoin will allow it to dramatically reduce costs for both consumers and merchants.
Sebastian Siemiatkowski, Klarna’s CEO who previously opposed the technology, changed his mind earlier this year and suggested the company could become the “last large fintech in the world to embrace” crypto.
US Bank has begun testing custom stablecoin issuance on the Stellar blockchain, marking one of the most progressive moves yet by a major US financial institution toward programable digital money. US Bancorp believes stablecoins may offer faster and potentially lower-cost settlement however banks require enhanced guardrails and protections against issues such as the loss of Terra USD’s peg.
Stablecoins are experiencing rapid growth, pushing their market capitalisation to new all-time highs. From a financial stability perspective, this may raise concerns arising from certain structural weaknesses inherent to stablecoins and their interconnectedness with traditional finance.
“Safety and control are non-negotiable when bringing tokenized assets into the banking environment. For bank customers, we have to think about protections around know-your-customer, the ability to unwind transactions, the ability to claw back transactions’ commented US Bank Senior Vice President and Head of Digital Asset Products, Mike Villano.
“One of the great things about the Stellar platform, as we did more research and development on it, was learning that they have the ability at their base operating layer to freeze assets and unwind transactions. When you are doing mission critical systems, when you are doing financial services, and you are moving consumers’ money, you need to make sure that your blockchain is going to be there. We are honoured to have the confidence of US Bank and our partners at PwC. We take that confidence and that trust very, very seriously.”