TruStage Ventures’ Brian Kaas Demystifies Stablecoins

By John San Filippo

On Feb. 24, 2026, Madison, Wis.-based TruStage, a leading insurance and financial services provider to the credit union industry, announced the formation of TruStage Digital Assets and the planned launch of TruStage Stablecoin (TSDA), a fully reserved U.S. dollar stablecoin. According to the company, TSDA is designed to broaden access to digital payment infrastructure for credit unions and other community-based financial institutions.

Brian Kaas

TruStage Digital Assets will operate as an offshoot of TruStage Ventures, which is the company’s fintech venture capital arm. Brian Kaas, who serves as TruStage Ventures president and managing director will take on the dual role of president for TruStage Digital Assets.

Finopotamus spoke with Kaas about TSDA at the recent Governmental Affairs Conference in Washington, D.C., and continued the discussion with a video interview the following week.

The Genesis of TruStage Digital Assets

Kaas explained TruStage has been monitoring stablecoin and blockchain technology for several years. The primary catalyst for moving from observation to action was the passage of the GENIUS Act. Once that was signed into law, he noted, the team began analyzing the implications for the credit union industry, specifically regarding deposit flight and lost revenue streams.

“We realized TruStage has relationships with 93% of the credit unions in the industry, so we have a built-in network effect already,” Kaas stated. He added that the company’s 90-year history of managing liquidity and deposits provided the necessary foundation to lead this initiative.

Enhancing Payment Efficiency

A major point of discussion involved how stablecoins differ from existing instant payment rails like FedNow. Kaas said that while consumers may not see much difference on the front end, the back-end efficiencies are significant. He also noted that blockchain transactions can cost less than a penny and settle in seconds.

“It is a better alternative than existing payment rails that have been around for 30, 40, or in some cases, 50 years,” Kaas said. He added that while he expects a gradual evolution where both systems exist side-by-side, he believes blockchain will eventually be the predominant technology for moving money.

Driving Consumer Adoption

Kaas acknowledged that the average consumer is not yet asking for stablecoins. However, he expects a shift to occur at the retail level. He pointed to major platforms like Amazon, Walmart, and Meta as the likely triggers for a change in consumer behavior.

“When you have some of the largest platforms in the United States that touch almost every consumer building in stablecoin infrastructure, you can create incentives and rewards to really incentivize consumer behavior,” Kaas explained. He compared the current state of stablecoins to the early days of the internet, when people were not yet asking for email addresses or websites.

A Controlled Pilot Program

TruStage is currently operating a pilot program limited to 15 credit unions across seven states. This phase is designed to gather feedback on design features and functionality. Once TruStage receives its issuer license, it plans to roll the stablecoin out more broadly to credit unions of all sizes using a no-integration solution developed in partnership with Delafield, Wis.-based Block Time Financial, a provider of blockchain-native financial infrastructure.

Kaas emphasized that differentiation in the stablecoin market comes down to the financial stability of the issuer. “The last thing you want is for the issuer of your stablecoin to become insolvent and not have adequate reserves to pay off the stablecoin that I hold from that issuer in full,” he noted.

Programmable Features and Security

One of the most innovative aspects of stablecoins, including TSDA, is smart contract capability. This allows for programmable payments, which can, for example, automate manual processes like loan participations. Furthermore, Kaas shared that the team is building unique features to address common digital asset concerns, such as fraud and accidental transfers.

“We are building this really with credit unions in mind, addressing the concerns we’ve heard about missing protections that exist in other forms of money movement,” Kaas told Finopotamus. He added that his team is working on other innovations, but chose not to elaborate at this time, stating he didn’t want to give away “the recipe to the secret sauce.”

Navigating the Regulatory Landscape

The regulatory environment for digital assets is becoming increasingly rigorous. Kaas pointed to the GENIUS Act and subsequent rules from the OCC and NCUA as essential for weeding out bad actors and ensuring consumer protection. He noted that obtaining an issuer license is an arduous process involving hundreds of pages of regulatory requirements.

“The regulators need to ensure that the consumer is protected and that the dollar they might transfer to an issuer to get a stablecoin is going to be worth a dollar when they go to cash that stablecoin in,” Kaas stated.

Show Me the Money

Kaas addressed the potential impact on interchange fees, noting that while income might decrease as stablecoin usage grows, it also opens the door for different revenue models. “I think there will be new revenue opportunities generated through stablecoin,” Kaas stated. He explained that even with transaction costs dropping to a penny or less, “there might be a charge that is higher than that penny, so there's room and margin there for credit unions to supplement, offset or replace some of the interchange revenue that I think inevitably will diminish.”

Furthermore, he highlighted that the initiative aims to protect credit unions from the broader threat of “deposit flight” by ensuring they can offer members a modern alternative to outside fintech platforms. “In addition to trying to mitigate some of that deposit flight, we also want to just share some of the economics of our stablecoin initiative with credit unions that participate,” Kaas added.

Maintaining Member Relevancy

Ultimately, Kaas views the stablecoin initiative as a way to ensure credit unions remain relevant to their members. He envisions a future where digital wallets are as common as checking accounts and are integrated directly into a credit union’s home banking portal.

“If the consumer isn’t able to move money easily back and forth, they might just decide to move their entire checking and savings account to some place that does have that functionality,” concluded Kaas.