In brief
- Wyoming lawmakers have been talking about introducing a stablecoin since 2022.
- The asset, WYST, is now targeted to launch on August 20 during the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium.
- This week, the U.S. Senate passed the GENIUS Act, which would create a legal framework for stablecoins.
The Cowboy State moved one step closer to issuing its own stablecoin.
The state-backed Wyoming Stable Token Commission said this week that the WYST cryptocurrency's debut will likely occur on August 20 at the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium in Jackson.
Wyoming lawmakers have been planning a stablecoin for its citizens since 2022. This spring, lawmakers announced that it was targeted to launch in July and could run across several major crypto networks, including Ethereum, Solana, Avalanche, and Ethereum scaling networks Base, Polygon, Arbitrum, and Optimism.

Wyoming Stablecoin Is Just a State-Issued CBDC by Another Name: Rep. Tom Emmer
House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) laid into Wyoming’s accelerating plans to issue its own stablecoin Thursday, issuing a rare rebuke of a fellow Republican crypto initiative. “I respect the vote of the Wyoming people, however, I personally am vehemently against any government issuing a tokenized version of its currency,” Emmer told Decrypt. “At the federal level, this would be considered a central bank digital currency.” Central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs—digital versions of a state’s...
"WYST is a public good," Anthony Apollo, executive director of Wyoming's Stable Token Commission, told Decrypt.
"Our statute dictates that the interest earned on the reserves backing the token will get swept into the School Foundation Fund on a quarterly basis," he added, referring to the yield the stablecoins produce.
He said that along with the state's collaboration with crypto interoperability protocol LayerZero, the stablecoin may launch on several networks simultaneously.
Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies designed to be non-volatile, and are typically pegged to the value of US dollars.
Private companies typically issue such tokens, which have traditionally been used by traders to enter and exit transactions on digital asset exchanges, and run on a number of major crypto networks, or blockchains.
Now, banks, major companies—including Meta and Amazon, reportedly—and U.S. states are all interested in issuing the crypto tokens, which are supposed to speed up payments using blockchain technology.
Wyoming's announcement comes just a few days after the U.S. Senate passed the GENIUS Act, which establishes a regulatory framework for the token and underscores the growing importance of these tokens.

Elizabeth Warren, Consumer Groups Slam Walmart and Amazon Stablecoin Plans
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and leading consumer advocacy groups denounced a report Friday that Amazon and Walmart are considering issuing their own stablecoins, framing such developments as an unacceptable outcome of pending stablecoin legislation in the Senate. “Let’s not forget the GENIUS Act has a major loophole allowing Big Tech companies and major retailers to issue their own private currencies structured as stablecoins,” Warren said Friday in a statement shared with Decrypt. “If Congress...
The House of Representatives is now weighing the legislation with President Donald Trump urging passage.
Wyoming has been at the forefront of states supporting more crypto-friendly regulation and the widening use of digital assets. Prominent American crypto exchange Kraken on Friday announced that it was relocating its headquarters to Wyoming capital Cheyenne, acknowledging the state as a "a pioneer in crypto regulation."
Edited by James Rubin