Michigan-based mortgage lender LitFinancial on Wednesday debuted its U.S. dollar stablecoin, dubbed litUSD, on the Ethereum blockchain as the digital dollar movement is expanding beyond crypto natives.
The firm said it plans to use the token to cut funding costs and improve treasury management operations, while also exploring on-chain settlement of mortgage payments. That shift could allow loan performance to be tracked publicly, potentially reshaping liquidity in the secondary mortgage market.
Stablecoins, cryptocurrencies with prices anchored to fiat money like the U.S. dollar, are quickly growing in popularity as an alternative for payments, promising faster, cheaper transactions using blockchain rails. Keyrock projected that stablecoin payment volume could erach $1 trillion by 2030.
Their mainstream adoption got a significant boost with the U.S. establishing regulation for the asset class and institutions with U.S. President Donald Trump signing the GENIUS Act in law in July.
“Stablecoins are rapidly becoming an essential tool for modern treasury operations,” LitFinancial CEO Tim Barry said in statement. “With litUSD, we’re building resilience and adaptability into our business model while pioneering how mortgage finance can evolve with blockchain technology.”
The stablecoin, dubbed litUSD, is deployed on the Ethereum ETH$4,419.07 as an ERC-20 token and backed 1:1 with cash and cash equivalents held in reserve. The firm chose Ethereum to build on because of its “stability, decentralized nature and aligning with domestic policies,” Barry said.
Brale, a FinCEN-registered money services business, manages issuance and redemption, while advisory firm Stably supports token economics and integration with decentralized finance (DeFi).
Consumers can mint and redeem LitUSD via bank transfer or Circle’s USDC stablecoin through Brale’s verified business accounts.
Founded in 2024, LitFinancial employs more than 100 staff and projects an annual mortgage origination run-rate of over $1 billion by 2026. Its leadership includes veterans of Rocket Mortgage and Coinbase.
Read more: Stripe CEO Patrick Collison Explains Why Businesses Are Turning to Stablecoins