Google Cloud confirmed it is building its own Layer 1 blockchain, called Google Cloud Universal Ledger (GCUL), marking the company’s most direct move yet into on-chain financial services. Rich Widmann, the firm’s head of Web3 strategy, described GCUL during an August 27 briefing, outlining a network designed to handle cross-border payments and asset settlement for banks and other large institutions. GCUL will use Python-based smart contracts and is currently running in a private testnet. Google Cloud said the ledger will draw on the company’s global infrastructure to serve billions of potential end-users and hundreds of institutional partners once the platform is opened more widely. Earlier this year, the company began a pilot with CME Group to explore tokenised products on the new chain. The initiative puts Google Cloud alongside other payments heavyweights pursuing proprietary blockchains aimed at the financial sector. Circle last quarter announced Arc, its own Layer 1 that treats the USDC stablecoin as native gas, while Stripe is developing the settlement-focused Tempo network. Widmann stressed GCUL’s neutrality, saying any stablecoin issuer or payments firm could build on the ledger.