Bank of America's CEO just warned that interest-bearing stablecoins could trigger a $6 trillion deposit exodus. Here's why that matters more than you think.
Why a Bank CEO Just Warned About $6T in Stablecoin Shifts
Bank of America's Brian Moynihan doesn't strike me as someone prone to hyperbole. So when he warns that allowing stablecoins to pay interest could shift up to $6 trillion out of traditional bank deposits, it's worth paying attention to what's really being said here.
For years, the crypto industry has talked about stablecoins as a better version of money. But this statement from one of the largest banks in the U.S. reframes the conversation entirely. We're no longer talking about a niche financial tool. We're talking about a direct competitor to the core banking product: deposits.
Here's the context most people miss. Banks pay almost nothing on deposits right now—often well under 1%—while they lend that same money out at significantly higher rates. That spread is how traditional banking works. It's been this way for decades, and customers have accepted it because there weren't many alternatives that offered both liquidity and safety.
Stablecoins change that equation. If a stablecoin issuer can pay yield by investing reserves in short-term Treasuries or money market instruments and pass some of that return to holders, suddenly you have a product that's liquid, digital, borderless, and pays competitive interest. For depositors, that's a better deal. For banks, that's a structural problem.
Moynihan's $6 trillion figure is likely based on internal modeling of how deposits would behave if faced with a better alternative. To put that in perspective, total U.S. bank deposits sit around $17-18 trillion. Losing a third of that to stablecoins would fundamentally reshape the financial system.
What stood out to me in his comments is the tone. This wasn't a dismissal of crypto or stablecoins as fringe. It was a sober risk assessment from someone who understands that incentives drive behavior. If customers can earn 4-5% on a stablecoin versus 0.5% in a checking account, many will move. Not all, but enough to matter.
The real question now is regulatory. Will policymakers allow stablecoins to offer yield at scale, or will they introduce rules that limit this capability to protect the traditional banking system? Because that's what this is really about—protecting deposit bases that banks rely on to function.
Either way, we've crossed a threshold. Legacy finance is no longer debating whether stablecoins are real. They're calculating the cost of competing with them.
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