Bank of America Quietly Positions: Could $6 Trillion in Bank Deposits Flood into Stablecoins?
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Bank of America Quietly Positions: Could $6 Trillion in Bank Deposits Flood into Stablecoins?
Banking Giants Move into Stablecoins: Is the 6 Trillion Deposit Migration Risk Real?
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsWritten by: Forbes
Compiled by: AididiaoJP, Foresight News
Recently, a series of personnel adjustments by Bank of America in the digital asset sector has sparked heated discussion in the crypto community.
Polygon Labs team member @Nxtlvl posted on the X platform: "Bank of America has appointed senior leaders to accelerate the promotion of digital assets and AI in the global market. They will be responsible for a platform covering stablecoins, tokenized deposits, custody, and crypto settlement. More adoption is coming, and a significant portion will happen quietly within the world's largest banks."
This statement was in response to an internal memo reported by Reuters and Bloomberg on July 17.
Bank of America appointed Global FICC Electronic Trading Head Sonali Theisen to additionally oversee the design, build, and governance of the bank's global digital asset platform; Kevin Milsom was appointed as Head of Platform AI Transformation; Adam Dixon continues to serve as Head of Digital Asset Transformation, responsible for tokenized deposits, crypto settlement, and custody business.
When the news broke, the crypto market was in a downturn.
On July 20, Bitcoin price hovered around $65,000, more than $50,000 lower than a year ago.
Potential Flow of $6 Trillion in Deposits
The "$6 trillion" figure circulating on social media was far more eye-catching than the personnel appointments.
A Korean crypto commentary account @CliporaGo posted on July 15: "Bank of America CEO clearly stated that $6 trillion in bank deposits could flow into stablecoins.
This is not a claim from crypto analysts or blockchain startups, but from the CEO of the second-largest bank in the United States."
However, this statement omitted important conditions and had the timing wrong.
Brian Moynihan's original words came from the bank's Q4 earnings conference call on January 14 this year, when he stated: deposits might migrate only if stablecoins are allowed to pay interest.
And the GENIUS Act does not allow this function.
The source of this number is earlier.
An April 2025 report by the U.S. Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee (TBAC) estimated that approximately $6.6 trillion in transactional bank deposits could face the risk of flowing into stablecoins in the long term.
Moynihan never concealed the bank's intentions.
In February 2025, he stated at a Washington Economic Club breakfast: "If the law allows, we will enter this business." At that time, stablecoin-related bills had not yet been introduced.
Institutions Are Adopting Stablecoins on a Large Scale
The GENIUS Act was signed on July 18, 2025, giving regulators one year to formulate final implementation rules.
But the July 18, 2026 deadline has passed, with only ten proposed rules released and none finalized, which delays the law's effective date to January 18, 2027.
In the same week that regulators missed the deadline, Bank of America high-profilely advanced its crypto leadership appointments.
Major banks are not sitting waiting for regulations to be perfected.
JPMorgan's JPMD tokenized deposits are already running on Coinbase's Base network; Citi's Token Services provides 24/7 tokenized dollar clearing services.
JPMorgan, Citi, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and HSBC are jointly building a shared tokenized deposit network through The Clearing House, with a goal to launch in the first half of 2027.
Transak CEO Sami Start pointed out on the On The Margin podcast: "Retail crypto buying and selling indeed feels somewhat like a 'crypto winter' currently, but stablecoin adoption has nothing to do with this.
Institutions are adopting stablecoins for real-world use cases, which is why we see it growing."
No Fundamental Change in Structure
Not everyone views these appointments as a turning point.
Pacemakers.io Managing Partner Alessandro Hatami told Bloomberg: "These banks have been announcing blockchain projects for ten years.
Banks are also competitors among themselves, which makes truly implementing joint infrastructure very difficult."
S&P Global Market Intelligence fintech research head Jordan McKee stated in an April CoinDesk report this year that most financial institutions are still in an "early and cautious" stage regarding stablecoin strategies.
The stablecoin market itself is also relatively flat.
According to DefiLlama data, total supply is close to $300 billion, down about $10 billion from the May peak, with Tether's USDT and Circle's USDC accounting for over 80%.
Neo, CEO of onchain new bank UR, said on the same podcast: "Nowadays in the Web3 and Web2 world, everyone takes shortcuts.
Issue a card with USDC stablecoin, and you become a new bank, able to spend easily, looking very cool.
But from a core structure perspective, nothing has truly changed."
January 2027 Race Has Begun
Optimists have their own data.
Artemis Analytics data shows that stablecoin on-chain settlement volume reached $33 trillion in 2025, a 72% year-over-year increase.
Bloomberg Intelligence predicts payment flows could exceed $50 trillion by 2030; 21Shares expects the stablecoin market size to break through $1 trillion by the end of 2026.
The next key date is January 18, 2027, when the GENIUS Act will take effect regardless of whether rules are completed.
By then, internal bank memos will carry more weight than external social media posts.
Nicole Sandler, Chief Ecosystem Officer of tokenized currency clearing startup Ubyx, told Bloomberg in July: "The competitive threat is now clearly visible and measurable."
At a time when the fusion of traditional finance and crypto is accelerating, Bank of America's quiet layout may just be the tip of the iceberg of a larger trend.
Future issues such as deposit migration and stablecoin interest payments will continue to test the balancing art of banks and regulators.
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