Stablecoins Impact the Banking System: Deposit Tokenization Accelerates, Traditional Finance Fully Embraces Blockchain

Gate News reports that on March 24, as the scale of stablecoins continues to expand, major global banks are accelerating their deposit tokenization strategies to address challenges such as capital outflows and pressure on business models. Institutions like Citigroup, BNY Mellon, and Standard Chartered have already begun blockchain-related initiatives, aiming to safeguard their core deposit bases amid the wave of digital assets.

Currently, stablecoins have become vital tools for cross-border payments and fund management. Assets like USDT and USDC attract users to transfer funds from traditional bank accounts to on-chain wallets due to their high efficiency, low costs, and global accessibility. This trend directly impacts banks’ deposit sources, which are essential for lending and profit generation, forcing a reshaping of liquidity and revenue models.

In this context, banks prefer to promote “deposit tokenization” rather than directly issuing stablecoins. This approach essentially maps bank deposits onto on-chain assets, maintaining regulatory compliance and customer relationships while achieving near real-time settlement efficiency. Unlike traditional transfers that take days, tokenized deposits can settle within seconds, improving fund turnover and reducing operational costs.

Additionally, this pathway helps banks preserve their existing profit structures. By tokenizing customer funds, banks can continue to offer credit services based on deposits, avoiding profit margin losses that could result from full stablecoin replacement. Moreover, the compliance advantages make it easier to gain regulatory approval, providing greater sustainability in uncertain policy environments.

However, the transition faces multiple challenges, including integrating core banking systems with blockchain technology, the lack of a unified global regulatory framework, and users’ limited understanding of the new model. Meanwhile, fintech companies and crypto-native platforms continue to innovate, further compressing traditional banks’ response times.

In the long term, deposit tokenization may become a key pathway for the integration of traditional finance and blockchain technology. As technology matures and regulatory clarity improves, the banking system could evolve into a hybrid structure operating both on-chain and off-chain, driving profound changes in global payments, clearing, and asset management.