The largest U.S. banks are building their own blockchain payment network, a direct response to crypto firms that are pushing deeper into core banking territory under a crypto-friendly Trump administration.
JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo and other major commercial banks plan to launch a tokenized deposit network in the first half of 2027. The network will be operated by The Clearing House, the real-time payment company co-owned by the same banks. A blockchain vendor has not yet been chosen.
The Clearing House CEO David Watson told The Wall Street Journal the industry faces a “radically different” future around on-chain payments and finance, calling the move “a big move for the banks.”
The network will connect traditional payment rails with digital asset infrastructure, allowing tokenized deposits to settle instantly across a blockchain around the clock. The Clearing House expects large multinational corporations to be the primary early adopters, with use cases spanning programmable treasury operations, real-time liquidity management and cross-border payments.
Banks have been bracing for stablecoin competition for some time, particularly as pending legislation left room for interest-like structures on stablecoins, which is a feature banks oppose. Tokenized deposits offer a path around that threat. Unlike stablecoins, tokenized deposits are simply traditional bank deposits represented as digital tokens. They carry the same credit-risk profile, regulatory treatment and accounting standards as conventional deposits, and they keep funds inside the banking system.
Citi’s head of services, Shahmir Khaliq, said the network represents “another step that effectively cements” the role banks play in financing, money management and capital markets.
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Not everyone is treating this as an urgent market need. Bank of America’s head of global payments solutions, Mark Monaco, acknowledged that clients aren’t necessarily “beating down the door” for tokenized deposits, but said the network would ensure banks are positioned when demand builds. “With any sort of new adoption, it takes time,” Monaco said.
JPMorgan already runs an internal tokenized deposit system called JPM Coin and recently extended a version of that product to Base, a public blockchain connected to Coinbase, for institutional clients. The new Clearing House network would put that capability in reach of banks across the U.S.
The banks have not ruled out issuing stablecoins if demand emerges. For now, the tokenized deposit network is the industry’s answer — and its opening move in a payments landscape that is changing faster than anyone expected.