Major US banks have announced plans to launch a joint tokenised deposit network in the first half of 2027 to compete with stablecoin providers.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the network will be operated by the Clearing House, a real-time payment infrastructure company co-owned by JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, and other large commercial banks. It is designed to connect conventional payment rails with blockchain infrastructure, enabling tokenised deposits to settle instantly on a 24/7 basis. The underlying blockchain will be provided by a third-party vendor, which had not been selected at the time of the announcement.
Bridging traditional banking and blockchain infrastructure
Tokenised deposits differ from stablecoins in that they represent existing bank deposits as digital tokens on a blockchain, rather than constituting a separate instrument. This distinction is significant for banks: tokenised deposits carry the same credit-risk profile, regulatory treatment, and accounting classification as conventional deposits, allowing institutions to offer blockchain-based payment functionality within an established regulatory framework while retaining deposits inside the banking system.
The Clearing House expects multinational corporations to represent the primary source of initial demand. Anticipated use cases include programmable treasury operations, real-time liquidity management, and cross-border payments, areas where blockchain settlement could offer material operational advantages over existing infrastructure.
In addition, the announcement comes amid intensifying competition between established banks and crypto-native firms operating under a more permissive regulatory environment in the US. Pending stablecoin legislation has become a point of contention: crypto companies have characterised recent legislative proposals as a workable compromise, while banks have objected to provisions that could allow interest-bearing structures on stablecoins, a feature that could erode deposit bases if widely adopted.
Context and prior activity
The initiative is not the sector's first foray into tokenised payment infrastructure. JPMorgan has operated an internal tokenised deposit system, JPM Coin, on its private blockchain for institutional clients and more recently expanded a deposit token of the same name to Base, a public blockchain affiliated with Coinbase Global. Broader tokenisation activity has also accelerated across Wall Street, with major exchanges preparing tokenised securities platforms and asset managers launching tokenised money-market funds.
In 2025, several of the same banks explored a joint stablecoin consortium through the Clearing House and Early Warning Services, the operator of the Zelle P2P payment network. That effort did not advance to launch, though bank executives have indicated stablecoin issuance remains a possibility if sufficient demand materialises — particularly for cross-border use cases.
Furthermore, Bank of America noted that client demand for tokenised deposits is not yet substantial but that the network would position participating banks to respond as adoption grows. The pace of uptake remains uncertain, and as with previous shifts in payment infrastructure, broader usage is expected to develop incrementally rather than immediately.
