Stablecoins currently have a total market cap of about $310 billion, less than 2% of U.S. bank deposits. But the yield gap is hard to ignore: Chase pays 0.01% APY on savings while Coinbase offers ~4% and Kraken ~5% on USDC. Bank of America's CEO warned in January that up to $6 trillion could shift if this continues.
The twist: the GENIUS Act (signed July 2025) banned stablecoin issuers from paying interest. Banks thought that solved it, but the law only covers issuers like Circle, not exchanges like Coinbase and Kraken that run their own rewards programs.
The American Bankers Association estimates this shift could reduce U.S. lending capacity by $1.26 trillion, pulling dollars away from mortgages, student loans, and small-business credit.
Source: https://www.coingecko.com/learn/banks-vs-stablecoins
