North Dakota Plans to Launch Its Own ‘Roughrider’ Stablecoin

The U.S. state of North Dakota is joining the stablecoin trend, with state-owned Bank of North Dakota teaming up with payments infrastructure giant Fiserv (FI) to launch a U.S. dollar-backed token aimed at financial institutions across the state. The token, dubbed “Roughrider Coin,” is expected to roll out next year and will run on Fiserv’s digital asset platform and plug into its white-label FIUSD system, a stablecoin network designed for regulated banking environments.

The token is aimed to “increase bank-to-bank transactions, encourage global money movement and drive merchant adoption,” the firms said in a press release. The news follows Fiserv’s June entrance with its crypto issuance platform on Solana to the fast-growing stablecoin sector.  Stablecoins are increasingly used as a faster, cheaper and programmable alternative for moving money on top of blockchains. The asset class swelled to $293 billion, expanding roughly 70% in a year.