Revolution without disaster? What stablecoins are really doing with banks

For years, we heard apocalyptic forecasts: stablecoins will take over deposits, banks will collapse, the financial system will fall apart. The reality turned out to be much more boring – and much more interesting.

Deposits won’t disappear because humans are lazy

It all started with Libra in 2019 – the global financial system went into panic. The question was: if everyone can hold a digital dollar on their phone and send it instantly, why keep money in a checking account that yields zero interest, charges fees, and “freezes” on weekends?

At that time, the logic seemed irrefutable. Times have changed, real data appeared – and it turned out that the industry was too quick to faint.

Professor Will Cong from Cornell University shows something surprising: despite the huge growth in stablecoin capitalization, empirical evidence almost does not show a direct link between their emergence and the outflow of deposits from traditional banks.

Why? Because humans are lazy, and the banking system is a brilliant network of connections.

The loop that keeps it going

A checking account is not a product. It is infrastructure. Everything lives there: mortgage loans, credit cards, payroll, insurance. Every transfer of value outside the bank becomes more difficult – and that’s why the money stays.

Consumers do not keep savings in checking accounts because it’s the best place – they keep it there because it’s the central hub. Moving everything to stablecoins? Theoretically nice. Practically? You have to deal with all that, change settings, break habits.

This is what Professor Cong calls “deposit stickiness” – a force of adhesion so strong that a few percentage points more interest won’t be enough to break it.

Warnings about a “mass exodus of deposits” turned out to be mostly good fiction – a panic fiction fueled by interested parties who ignored basic economic laws.

Competition changes the game

But here’s where it gets interesting.

Stablecoins won’t kill banks. But they will soon force them to work.

The very existence of an alternative – even if few people use it – changes the equation. Banks can no longer assume deposits are “locked.” They have to compete. This means higher interest rates, more efficient operations, less reliance on customer habits.

This doesn’t reduce the pie; it makes the whole pie grow faster.

According to research, the presence of stablecoins leads to “greater credit activity and broader financial intermediation, ultimately increasing consumer prosperity.” Banks are starting to compete where they previously could afford complacency.

The mechanism is simple: the threat of departure is a powerful motivator.

Regulatory frameworks finally appear

On July 18, 2025, President Donald Trump signed the “GENIUS Act”. This wasn’t some pre-prepared paperwork – it’s a concrete safety framework for the stablecoin industry.

Requirement: stablecoins must be fully backed by cash, US bonds, or deposits. Enforceable redemption rights. Strict operational limits.

Concerns about a “run” – a wave of redemptions that could destabilize reserves – are real but not new. It’s a standard banking problem forever. The frameworks already exist. They are applied to new technologies.

The Fed and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency will now be responsible for implementation. This means: stablecoins are moving out of the shadows and into the regulatory system.

This is a fundamental change. Not an innovation in regulatory wilderness – it’s a formal part of the US financial infrastructure.

Where the real value lies

All the discussions about “threats to deposits” overshadowed something more important.

The current cross-border payment system is a farce: money has to circulate through many intermediaries, sometimes taking days to settle. Expensive. Slow. With counterparties at every step.

Stablecoins provide “atomic settlements” – instant transfer of value without counterparty risk. One on-chain transaction, done. Liquidity that the correspondent banking system freezes for days is unleashed.

In the domestic market, this means lower costs for merchants and faster settlements.

For the banking sector, it’s a rare opportunity: modernize the settlement infrastructure, which has relied on tape and COBOL for years.

The dollar must transform

The US must decide: be a leader in this transformation or watch as the future of finance is built elsewhere.

The dollar is the most popular financial product in the world – but the “rails” it moves on are already outdated. “GENIUS Act” offers competitive institutional frameworks.

By integrating stablecoins into transparent regulations, the US turns the shadow banking risk into a solid, global plan to modernize the dollar. Instead of unwanted foreign innovations, they make it part of the national infrastructure.

Just like the music industry: it relied on streaming, waited for ruin, and discovered a new gold mine. Banks are now resisting a transformation that will ultimately save them.

When they realize they can charge for “speed” rather than profit from “delays,” they will learn to accept change.

Stablecoins won’t replace the traditional system – they will complement it, act as a catalyst that forces it to operate more efficiently. The threat was invented. The opportunity is real.