Wall Street’s Crypto Play: Major Banks Eye Joint Stablecoin Launch
Forget ’too big to fail’—now it’s ’too big to ignore crypto.’ Rumor has it the usual banking suspects are huddling up to launch a shared stablecoin. Because nothing says ’trust us’ like the institutions that brought you the 2008 financial crisis suddenly embracing decentralization.
Sources whisper this isn’t just exploratory—it’s a full-blown arms race against private stablecoins eating their lunch. The twist? These are the same banks that spent years dismissing Bitcoin as a Ponzi scheme.
Will their coin peg to the dollar—or to banker bonuses? Either way, the irony’s thicker than a compliance manual. Welcome to finance’s latest ’if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em’ moment.
Banks Playing Catchup
The report comes just days after key stablecoin legislation was moved along in US Congress. On May 20, the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act, passed in a Senate vote and now sets up the bill for floor debate.
American banks are growing concerned that under President Trump, stablecoins could become widely adopted and pose a threat to their deposits, transaction volume, and ultimately profits, especially if big tech companies enter the market.
In March, the TRUMP family’s DeFi platform World Liberty Financial said it would launch a stablecoin. The banks are now playing catch-up after crypto regulatory crackdowns two years ago.
They also see stablecoins as useful for speeding up routine transactions like cross-border payments, which currently take days through traditional systems.
“The possibility of Wall Street’s traditional powers teaming up to issue their own stablecoin marks the latest sign that mainstream and crypto finance are inching closer together,” the WSJ stated.
A Threat to Stablecoin Issuers?
BitMEX founder Arthur Hayes hinted that this could be the demise of crypto stablecoin issuers such as Circle.
Bye bye Circle. Thanks for playing. https://t.co/LmFPrv6KZK
— Arthur Hayes (@CryptoHayes) May 23, 2025
However, in reality, it is unlikely that US banks will be able to compete with global stablecoins, which are available to everyone. This is because users will likely need a US bank account and all the restrictions that come with it to use their products.
Meanwhile, the crypto stablecoin market is currently worth $248 billion, which represents around 7% of the entire crypto market. Earlier this month, stablecoin liquidity reached a record high of $220 billion, reported CryptoPotato.
In early May, US Treasury researchers predicted that there could be an increase of more than 8x from the current stablecoin market cap, propelling it to about $2 trillion by 2028.
