National Australia Bank (NAB) announced March 14 that it had executed the first-ever cross-border stablecoin transfer on a layer 1 public blockchain. The intrabank transfer used the bank’s fully backed AUDN stablecoin tied to the Australian dollar (AUD).
The transaction was conducted on the Ethereum blockchain and used smart contracts for seven currencies, according to a statement released by the bank. Those currencies were Australian, New Zealand, Singapore and United States dollars, as well as euros, Japanese yen and British pounds, according to a statement released by Fireblocks.
The stablecoins were freshly minted as bank liabilities on the ERC-20 standard. NAB partnered with the Fireblocks platform and BlockFold professional services consultants on the project. NAB executive general manager for markets Drew Bradford commented:
The pilot showed the technology’s potential to cut transaction times from days to minutes and was part of NAB’s focus on simplifying international banking protocols, the bank said. It added that it expected to support corporate and institutional clients transacting in digital assets by the end of the year.
NAB’s stablecoin, the AUDN, deployed for instant cross-border payments.https://t.co/5gCUFm9ptJ
NAB is the second major Australian bank to issue an Australian dollar-backed stablecoin. Its AUDN coin was designed with an eye to cross-border transfer and carbon credit trading, according to an announcement made in January. In February, NAB was listed as one of nine founding banks making up the international Carbonplace blockchain carbon credit transaction network.
Related: Digital assets could add $40B a year to Aussie GDP: Tech Council report
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