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USBC, Inc. disclosed in an SEC filing that it entered into a strategic partnership agreement with Vast Bank, N.A. and Uphold HQ Inc., effective Jan. 20, 2026, to support a tokenized bank-deposit program for Uphold users. The Form 8-K describes the arrangement as enabling Uphold customers to participate in a “tokenized deposit network” operated by USBC in order to access banking services provided by Vast Bank, and states that a prior non-binding MOU from October 2025 was terminated upon the agreement becoming effective.
Under the definitive agreement, Vast is the deposit account bank in the structure: the contract defines a “User USBC Account” as a demand deposit account at Vast held in the user’s name, while Uphold is designated both as an integration/referral “Developer” and as a “Network Service Provider” for services offered across the network. The contract also sets economic and operational terms, including an obligation for Uphold to maintain a $3 million compensating deposit at Vast for the first 12 months after the effective date, monthly reporting and revenue-share statement mechanics, and exclusivity provisions that apply from “General Launch” (defined as the first commercial launch of the program to the general public on the Uphold platform).
USBC separately announced the “definitive triparty agreement” in a press release furnished to the SEC as Exhibit 99.1, stating the partnership is aimed at regulated tokenized bank deposits and noting that contemplated use cases are subject to applicable regulatory approvals and technical milestones.
Additional context: USBC’s 2025 annual report describes its tokenized deposit offering as a U.S. dollar-denominated tokenized representation of bank deposit liabilities recorded on distributed-ledger technology, and states the company is designing the product so the underlying deposit account is eligible for FDIC insurance (subject to limits and requirements) and subject to Regulation E protections; it also describes plans for a structured pilot program with limited internal users. Vast Bank’s recent supervisory history includes an OCC consent order issued in October 2023 and an OCC order terminating that consent order in September 2025.
What this affects: For platforms and distribution partners, the agreement sets out a framework in which Uphold customers would access Vast demand deposit accounts through a USBC-operated tokenized deposit network, with exclusivity and compensating-deposit obligations defined contractually from “General Launch” . For banking supervisors and compliance teams, the same exhibit acknowledges that tokenized deposit balances “may be subject to analysis” under brokered-deposit rules and includes a clause requiring the parties to negotiate revisions if regulators such as the FDIC or OCC raise supervisory concerns, while the SEC filing does not disclose a calendar date for “General Launch”.
