Bank of America is prepared to debut its own stablecoin in the U.S., diving headfirst into the crypto space once regulation is passed, CEO Brian Moynihan said on Tuesday.
Speaking with the businessman and philanthropist David Rubenstein at The Economic Club of Washington, D.C., Moynihan predicted that the endeavor is only a matter of time—and the passing of pending legislation.
“It’s pretty clear that there’s going to be a stablecoin, which is going to be fully dollar-backed,” he said, referring to ongoing legislative efforts on Capitol Hill. “If they make that legal, we will go into that business.”
Though stablecoins have blossomed into a $232 billion market without clear rules in the U.S., experts expect that stablecoin legislation could unlock a myriad of new players—tapping tokens pegged to the price of a fiat currency, such as the U.S. dollar, for new products and services.
Bank of America is the second-largest U.S. bank behind only JP Morgan. According to its latest earnings release, the Wall Street giant had a whopping $3.26 trillion in total assets.
President Donald Trump may be trying to uplift the industry broadly, but Moynihan described stablecoins as distinct compared to assets like Bitcoin or blockchains generally. He compared stablecoins to money market funds, while saying they also closely resemble bank accounts.
“The question of what it’s useful for is going to be interesting,” Moynihan said, referring to the bank's would-be stablecoin as “Bank of America Coin.”
Earlier this year, Moynihan said during an appearance on CNBC's “Squawk Box” that “the banking system will come in hard on the transactional side” of stablecoins if legislation is passed. They would find broad use in payments, he said.
Lawmakers have debated for years what a pathway to legality for stablecoin issuers should look like. Earlier this month, however, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott (R-SC) vowed to get a regulatory framework for stablecoins passed within Trump’s first 100 days.
To the consternation of some lawmakers, payment firms, including PayPal, have jumped into the stablecoin space without clear federal rules. The firm debuted its PYUSD stablecoin in 2023 and said this week that it wants 20 million merchants using the product this year.
As Bank of America’s largest competitor, JP Morgan has dabbled in the stablecoin space since 2020. While pioneering its Onyx blockchain, the firm has positioned “JPM Coin” as a tool for cross-border transactions and payments between financial institutions.
Edited by James Rubin