Solana enters US banking with 90 North Dakota banks leading it

North Dakota’s banks and credit unions are getting a dollar settlement route on Solana as banking technology provider Fiserv brings its digital asset platform into production.

In its Oct. 1 announcement, the company identified Roughrider Coin, an interbank payment token overseen by the Bank of North Dakota (BND), as the platform’s first live use case.

Participating institutions will access it through Commercial Center, Fiserv’s online banking system already used for traditional interbank transfers. BND says initiation, approval, and settlement will run through the same operational channels banks use for ACH and wires, allowing staff to work through familiar banking systems.

Fiserv says more than 90 North Dakota banks and credit unions are participating. That figure describes participation in the rollout, leaving how much money actually moves through Roughrider undisclosed.

The production milestone follows Bank of North Dakota and Fiserv’s October 2025 announcement, which planned availability in 2026.

Public network, controlled access

BND’s deployment documentation describes Roughrider as a permissioned asset on Solana’s public blockchain. Participation is voluntary and restricted to financial institutions, and token transfers run on Solana under those institutional access controls.

US bank VersaBank USA National Association issues Roughrider, Fiserv operates the platform, and BND provides governance oversight. Fiserv assigns VersaBank responsibility for minting, burning, custody, and reserve management. BND describes Fireblocks-secured wallets and cites freeze and clawback capabilities available through Solana’s Token-2022 extensions.

Fiserv calls Roughrider a stablecoin, while BND’s current deployment page calls it a dollar-backed token deposit.

According to BND, each token has one-to-one US dollar backing. Minting occurs only after a confirmed transfer from an institution’s operating account into a designated “for benefit of” account.

Arrival at the receiving institution’s wallet automatically triggers burning through a smart-contract instruction, a design intended to keep token balances low.

Burning retires the transferred tokens, while the banking accounts remain part of the process. BND describes daily netting of account movements across VersaBank custody accounts and a concentration account held at BND.

Token settlement and banking-account reconciliation are distinct parts of the design.

BND positions the system for treasury transfers and loan payoff, with near-instant settlement around the clock and lower costs than wires. Its comparison table provides indicative costs, but the launch materials disclose no measured realized savings or performance-testing methodology.

For community banks, the immediate change is an additional settlement option embedded in existing banking workflows. The next test is whether an active-sender count and payment volume would show whether the participating institutions turn that new option into routine interbank business.