North Dakota plans to issue its own stablecoin

• Key insight: North Dakota is joining Wyoming as states issuing stablecoins. 
• What's at stake: Fiserv, the state's partner, is looking to scale its stablecoin platform.
• Forward look: Hundreds of banks and other firms are considering launching their own stablecoins. 

North Dakota plans to issue its own stablecoin in collaboration with Fiserv, providing an early jolt for the bank technology company's stablecoin strategy and adding another state that will issue its own digital currency. 
The Roughrider coin, named for Theodore Roosevelt and the Rough Riders, will be available to banks and credit unions in early 2026, and is partly designed to support account-to-account payments, among other emerging use cases for stablecoin payments. The Bank of North Dakota, a state-operated bank and depository institution for state funds, will issue the Roughrider coin, using Fiserv's digital asset platform. Interest in stablecoins has heated up following the passage of the GENIUS Act in July. Hundreds of banks, fintechs and other organizations have begun work on potentially issuing their own stablecoins, individually or as part of a consortium. This would add new groups of issuers to a cryptocurrency company-dominated market for stablecoins.

Interoperability is considered important in a market with a potential glut of stablecoin options, and North Dakota's stablecoin is expected to be interoperable with other digital currencies, according to a release. Spokespeople for North Dakota and Fiserv did not comment before deadline. 

"As one of the first states to issue our own stablecoin backed by real money, North Dakota is taking a cutting-edge approach to creating a secure and efficient financial ecosystem for our citizens," said North Dakota Governor Kelly Armstrong, in a release. North Dakota is an early user of Fiserv's stablecoin technology. Fiserv in June announced it would launch its own stablecoin, FIUSD, and make it part of the company's bank technology menu, which also includes a digital asset technology platform. Fiserv has also partnered with PayPal and Circle to scale FIUSD, Circle's USDC and PayPay's PYUSD. 

Since Fiserv's client roster includes thousands of banks, the firm is addressing concerns that stablecoins could drain traditional bank deposits. 

"Whereas Fiserv is clearly moving aggressively to counter the risk that stablecoins will co-opt its financial institution customers' deposit bases, impairing growth, we think the stablecoin ecosystem will take time to evolve, likely forcing early participants to adjust strategy on the fly," analysts at William Blair said in a research note on Fiserv's stablecoin strategy, noting Fiserv's stablecoin and related technology could help it retain small- to medium-size banks. 

There are also reasons North Dakota would want a stablecoin, namely the improved transaction processing that would come with it. 

"The reasons that a state, or any other government, would want to use stablecoins is the same as for any business. There is a hope that stablecoins will drive down transaction costs and streamline money movement," Aaron Press, research director for Worldwide Payment Strategies, told American Banker.  

North Dakota's stablecoin follows Wyoming's Frontier Stable Token, which launched in August through a partnership with Ava Labs' Avalanche and Rain, two technology companies that specialize in blockchain and stablecoins.

In an earlier interview, Anthony Apollo, executive director of the Wyoming Stable Token Commission, told American Banker Wyoming's FRNT would support disaster recovery funding, disbursements and funding for schools. Apollo also drew a distinction between state stablecoins and central bank digital currencies, saying state coins do not involve issuing new money but instead represent a tokenized version of existing bank accounts. 

"I can also see how a government would be interested in the transparency inherent in blockchain-based transactions," Press said. "North Dakota may also be thinking about the value of stablecoins for cross-border payments, especially given their commodity heavy economy and the importance of trade, and thus trade finance."