Ant International, the global payments firm that owns Alipay+, announced a partnership with Deutsche Bank today that suggests the company is considering issuing its own stablecoin. The deal, which also covers tokenized deposits for cross border payments, makes Deutsche Bank the first German bank to integrate with the blockchain based treasury platform, Ant Whale. Last year Ant International was spun off from Ant Group, the owner of the Chinese payments giant Alipay.
The partnership will see the two companies “look into the application of stablecoins for global payments, including real time cross border treasury management for Ant’s entities, reserve management and on-ramp and off-ramp services,” according to Ant’s statement. The inclusion of “reserve management” is particularly telling – stablecoin issuers typically need banks to help manage the government securities and cash reserves that back their digital currencies.
While Ant didn’t explicitly confirm plans to launch its own stablecoin, companies that simply use existing stablecoins don’t typically require reserve management services. The wording suggests Ant’s exploration goes beyond merely adopting third party digital currencies. The company didn’t respond to requests for clarification, and the wording indicates the work remains at an early stage.
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