Big banks may have found their answer to the CLARITY Act’s stablecoin challenge
The Clearing House, owned by major U.S. banks, is building a network for 24/7 on-chain settlement of tokenized bank deposits. The goal is to give banks blockchain-style speed, programmability, and richer data while keeping balances, compliance, and deposit economics inside regulated banking rails, with links to RTP and CHIPS. This is a bank-led alternative to stablecoins: stablecoins move dollar claims outside the deposit system, while tokenized deposits keep them as commercial bank liabilities. The move is both defensive and opportunistic. Stablecoins proved demand for digital dollars and raised fears of deposit outflows, so banks want a comparable product without losing core deposits. New U.S. rules also matter: GENIUS Act protections for payment stablecoins exclude distributed-ledger-recorded deposits from the stablecoin definition, helping preserve a legal path for tokenized deposits. The broader bet is that banks can match stablecoin utility while keeping money, control, and regulation inside the banking system.
