As some of the world’s most entrenched institutions open their arms to cryptocurrency, the walled fortress of corporate acceptance seems to be disintegrating one pillar at a time. The latest is PricewaterhouseCoopers, the world’s second-largest professional services firm, who has thrown its weight behind a USD stablecoin project aiming to “usher in the next 100M users of crypto assets.”

Walking as one of the ‘Big Four’ accounting giants, PwC has joined hands with cryptocurrency-backed lending startup Cred, formerly Libra Credit, to develop the newfangled dollar-backed token, a press release by the company stated Oct. 8.

As part of the tie-up, PwC will leverage its archetypal accounting services to provide “100% transparency and value substantiation”—a move the company claimed will bolster trust and confidence in the cryptocurrency ecosystem.

Grainne McNamara, PwC’s Blockchain and Cryptocurrency head, stated:

We are eager to leverage our proven industry experience to support a quickly developing asset class and its associated market infrastructure components. We believe this exploration of the blockchain infrastructure and associated operational frameworks can help the industry develop an increased level of comfort.

Squeaky Clean Stablecoins

Through the tactful tones of a corporate press release, one notice Tether’s USDT, the most widely used USD stablecoin by market capitalization and daily volume, which has repeatedly ruffled feathers over solvency concerns, exchange vulnerabilities, and allegations of price manipulation.

With Tether yet to prove its reserves and erase the bulk of the aforementioned question marks, it would appear PwC sees a place for some good old-fashioned bookkeeping in the stablecoin sphere. Or, as PwC put it: “a more transparent set of reserve functions, stablecoins and deposit and yield products.”

Compliance-heavy PwC would not likely be flipping through the ledgers of Tether any time soon, however, instead backing Cred, the brainchild of former PayPal executives Lu Hua and Dan Schatt. In the eyes of PwC, which services more than 100,000 businesses across 158 countries, perhaps the San Francisco-registered startup won’t be taking a laissez-faire approach to balancing the books.

Schatt, Cred co-founder, and President, reflected on PwC’s involvement in the project:

PwC’s commitment to the crypto community at large sends a very strong message to retail investors, mainstream financial services providers and the crypto enthusiasts that the world is moving toward decentralization, transparency and accountability in a system that will evolve beyond the need for trusted intermediaries.

Indeed, PwC’s weight would presumably carry shockwaves through the wave of USD-backed stablecoin projects seen in recent months. Rubbing elbows with the likes of the fully regulated Gemini dollar and Paxos Standard, it would appear corporations are beginning to storm in on the battle to become the one world currency.

This Lending & Borrowing News was brought to you by Cred.