Bank of America CEO says it’s ‘pretty clear’ lending giant will develop a stablecoin

Fintechs embraced crypto agelong ago, past Wall Street plus absorption firms did the aforesaid by rolling retired Bitcoin ETFs past year.

Now it’s the banks’ turn.

On Tuesday, Brian Moynihan, the CEO of Bank of America, said the expanding acceptance of stablecoins for payments is coming fast.

But there’s a drawback — Congress volition person to walk authorities establishing rules for their use, and President Donald Trump volition person to motion it into law.

“It’s beauteous wide there’s going to beryllium a stablecoin,” Moynihan said successful an interrogation astatine the Economic Club successful Washington. “If they marque that legal, we’ll spell into that business.”

Watershed moment

The value of this infinitesimal shouldn’t beryllium underestimated.

Banks, by their nature, determination glacially successful adopting caller innovative practices, particularly technological ones involving the processing of payments.

So for Moynihan, who leads the 2nd biggest US slope with $3.3 trillion successful assets, to unambiguously clasp stablecoins is huge. It means different slope chieftains volition astir apt travel suit.

Still, Moynihan, who has led BofA since 2010, cautioned that the nonstop relation stablecoins whitethorn play successful payments remains fuzzy.

“The question of what it’s going to beryllium utile for is going to beryllium interesting,” helium said.

‘It’s going to beryllium a caller outgo method.'

The shot is present precise overmuch successful lawmakers’ court.

A fig of bills are nether information connected Capitol Hill, including the STABLE Act and the GENIUS Act, which would specify the rules of the roadworthy for stablecoins.

Yet there’s inactive a agelong mode to spell earlier approved versions of the bills are sent to President Donald Trump for his signature, and the crypto manufacture is watching intimately to marque definite they don’t incorporate unwanted restrictions.

And bankers specified arsenic Moynihan are bound to beryllium attuned to immoderate imaginable events that mightiness formed uncertainty connected the integrity of these instruments, specified arsenic their usage successful wealth laundering and illicit finance.

Stablecoins, tokens that are pegged to the US dollar, person go by galore measures the astir utile instrumentality successful crypto.

Myriad offerings

By letting users easy person fiat currencies to crypto and vice versa, Tether’s USDT and Circle’s USDC are the lifeblood of the $3 trillion crypto market.

Now a bevy of accepted players are rolling retired their ain stablecoins arsenic expectations emergence they volition beryllium integrated into payments infrastructure. PayPal, MasterCard, and Robinhood are but a fewer of the companies that person developed their ain offerings.

“It’s going to beryllium a caller outgo method,” Chris Colson, the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s payments researcher told DL News this week.

Investment banks are besides eyeing stablecoins.

In January, Morgan Stanley CEO Ted Pick told CNBC that the slope “will beryllium moving with Treasury, and the different regulators to fig retired however we tin connection [crypto] successful a harmless way.”

Meanwhile, Robin Vince, the CEO of BNY Mellon, which manages $2 trillion successful assets, besides said the blockchain manufacture has a batch of promise.

“Digital assets correspond a caller interesting, innovative technology, which we deliberation could beryllium important to the fiscal strategy implicit the adjacent 10, 20 years,” said Vince.

Cross-border domination

All this buzz has stoked bullishness successful the sector.

On Wednesday, Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan predicted stablecoins volition “dominate” the cross-border payments system, which handled astir $155 trillion successful 2024, according to FTX Intelligence.

He highlighted “signposts” showing the rising momentum successful the space, including Stripe’s $1.1 cardinal acquisition of stablecoin steadfast Bridge, PayPal’s instauration of its stablecoin PYUSD for 20,000 tiny and mid-size businesses. And, of course, Bank of America’s plan.

Still, Hougan tempered expectations.

“Prediction: TradFi stablecoins volition find it harder than they deliberation to triumph marketplace share.”

Pedro Solimano is simply a markets analogous based successful Buenos Aires. Got a tip? Email him astatine [email protected].