Technology giant IBM has thrown its weight behind a new stablecoin called Stronghold USD, built on the Stellar network. The token, issued by Stronghold—a trading platform that recently raised $3.3 million from Freestyle Capital—is pegged one-to-one to the U.S. dollar, with reserves held by Prime Trust, a Nevada-based state-chartered bank that also backs the competing stablecoin TrueUSD.
Stronghold USD: Enterprise-Focused Stablecoin
Stronghold USD is not designed for retail investors but as a B2B solution for financial institutions, multinational corporations, and asset managers. Co-founder and CTO Sean Bennett explained: “The process for seamlessly managing and trading assets of any form from digital to traditional currencies needs to evolve as financial institutions are seeking ways to break into new asset classes like cryptocurrencies. Asset-backed tokens can provide seamless access to all currencies, improving the global movement of money. We’re honored to work with IBM to explore new ways to use Stronghold USD.” Currently, the stablecoin is available only to pre-approved enterprise clients, but the company indicated it may open to retail customers in the coming months.
Integration with IBM Blockchain Platform
IBM will integrate Stronghold USD into its IBM Blockchain Platform, leveraging the token for asset trading and settlement within business networks. Jesse Lund, global vice president of IBM Blockchain, commented: “The digitization of real-world assets using blockchain can dramatically transform many forms of financial transactions conducted around the world. New types of fiat-backed instruments, like Stronghold’s USD token, have the potential to improve the backbone of international banking operations and payments, giving banks an easier way to integrate with public blockchain networks without significant changes to their core banking and compliance infrastructure.”
IBM’s Broader Blockchain Push
Separately, IBM announced a partnership with Columbia University to launch the Columbia-IBM Center for Blockchain and Data Transparency in New York. The center will combine cross-disciplinary teams of scientists, business leaders, and government experts to explore issues related to digital data use on blockchain, focusing on secure multi-party computation, homomorphic encryption, secure hardware, and fraud reduction. This move underscores IBM’s commitment to staying at the forefront of blockchain innovation across industry and academia.
The emergence of Stronghold USD adds to the growing list of stablecoins—from Tether to TrueUSD—aiming to bridge traditional finance with the crypto world. IBM’s deep involvement provides significant institutional credibility to the project, potentially accelerating enterprise adoption of blockchain-based payment infrastructure.