BofA CEO: Legalizing Interest on Stablecoins Will Lead to an Outflow of Up to $6T
- Brian Moynihan believes that approving interest payments to stablecoin holders will lead to an outflow of deposits.
- He mentioned an amount of up to USD 6 trillion, about one third of all funds deposited in American banks.
- The BofA CEO believes that this will directly affect the US economy.
Legalizing the payment of interest income on stablecoins will lead to an outflow of up to USD 6 trillion in bank deposits from the American financial sector, which is fraught with risks. This forecast was made by Bank of America (BofA) CEO Brian Moynihan, allegedly referring to a study by the US Treasury Department.
The BofA CEO raised this topic during a conference call on the results of the fourth quarter of 2025. According to him, stablecoins resemble money market mutual funds in their structure, as they also hold reserves in high-yield and liquid assets.
In such a setup, the money is outside the banking system, Moynihan noted. A reduction in the volume of deposits, in turn, will limit counterparties’ ability to provide lending, which will directly affect the US economy.
“If you remove the deposits, then they [the banks] will not be able to issue loans, or they will have to raise funding from other sources, and that will also have its own cost,” Moynihan said.
According to his estimate, legalizing the possibility of paying interest to stablecoin holders will lead to an outflow of up to USD 6 trillion in deposits. This is about one third of all assets deposited in American banks.
It is worth noting that the issue of paying interest to stablecoin holders is one of the key questions in forming the regulatory framework for the crypto market in the US. The banking sector is strongly opposed to legalizing such a mechanism.
It would turn stablecoins into an analogue of deposits with an increased rate, while the requirements for issuers of such assets are lower than for traditional financial counterparties.
Earlier, we covered a statement by Senator Cynthia Lummis, according to which a compromise was reached in developing an interim version of the framework bill. In terms of stablecoins, it provides for a ban on payments for merely holding such assets, but allows rewards for active participation.
However, given that the Senate Banking Committee has put the process of developing its own version of the bill on hold, when exactly the regulatory framework will come into force remains an open question.
In his statement during the conference, Moynihan refers to the U.S. Treasury. However, no such report has been published previously.
