Wyoming Tests Use of State-Issued Stablecoin for Contractor Payments

Wyoming reportedly tested its planned state-issued stablecoin, the Wyoming Stable Token (WYST), Thursday (July 17), seeing how it could be used for real-time payments to government contractors.

The state teamed up with blockchain startup Hashfire to use the stablecoin through the company’s Document Authentication Protocol, which is built on a custom Avalanche blockchain, CoinDesk reported Thursday.

In a Thursday post on X that linked to the CoinDesk article, Avalanche said: “From 45 days to a few seconds — that’s 99.99995% faster. Wyoming just tested real-time contractor payments using its state-issued stablecoin, WYST, using [Hashfire] on Avalanche.”

In a reply to that post, Hashfire said: “So fast.”

Hashfire said in a May 22 post on X that it was launching a pilot program using the Wyoming Stable Token to pay vendors.

“This innovative initiative enables businesses doing vital work for Wyoming citizens to execute agreements and receive payments instantly, boosting liquidity and working capital,” Hashfire said in the post.

It was reported in August that Wyoming was developing its own U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin to be used for consumer payments.

Advocates of the Wyoming Stable Token said it will provide a faster and cheaper way for individuals and businesses to transact, will create a new revenue stream for the state and may serve as a model for a stablecoin at the federal level.

Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon said in the August report that the stablecoin will be dollar-dependent, transparent and fully backed by short-term Treasurys.

The Wyoming Stable Token Commission, which has rulemaking authority, has set in place a reserve management that would mandate that the token be fully backed — with a 102% minimum reserve — by U.S. dollars and Treasury bills, Joel Revill, commissioner of the Wyoming Stable Token Commission and CEO of Two Ocean Trust, told PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster in an interview posted in February.

“The commission will be the [stablecoin] issuer,” Revill said. “The design is that it fits seamlessly into existing FinTech payment rails.”

Revill said the commission is not tasked with trying to determine how the coin might ultimately be used in commerce, as market forces will determine use cases.