Chainlink partners with Fireblocks to help banks issue stablecoins

Fireblocks and Chainlink Labs have announced a strategic collaboration to provide banks with a technology solution for issuing and managing regulated stablecoins.

Crypto custody and services firm Fireblocks has partnered with Chainlink Labs to offer a new solution for banks to issue and manage stablecoins, according to a press release dated September 17. The “strategic collaboration” will reportedly support end-to-end tokenization capabilities for stablecoin issuers, including minting, custody, and distribution, among other services.

Commenting on the collaboration, Angie Walker, Chainlink Labs’ head of global banking and capital markets, said that both parties hope the collaboration will “not only provide stablecoin users with real-time visibility into their asset reserves, but also enhance the stablecoin’s usefulness as a secure payment instrument and institutional trading vehicle in digital asset markets.”

The joint effort is understood to provide issuing agents with a “single, comprehensive, real-time view of stablecoins, reserves, market cap, and total supply, including across different blockchains.” While it remains unclear which banks will begin issuing stablecoins, both firms previously supported Wenia, a division of Colombia’s largest bank Bancolombia, to launch its COPW stablecoin.

The collaboration comes after a recent survey found that stablecoins are projected to settle at $3.7 trillion by 2023 and are on track to reach $5.28 trillion by 2024, with increasing usage beyond exchange settlement. The data, compiled by Castle Island Ventures and Brevan Howard Digital, revealed that stablecoins have evolved “from mere trading collateral to a general-purpose digital dollar instrument.”