Deepak Gupta argues that as regulatory clarity solidifies and banks move from pilots to production, 2026 will mark the moment stablecoins and tokenised deposits become a mainstream, bank-grade settlement layer – integrated alongside existing payment rails
Stablecoins are moving from peripheral experiments to regulated digital cash, combining blockchain speed with fiat stability. In parallel, tokenised deposits are emerging as a bank-native evolution of money, representing commercial bank deposits issued on distributed ledger technology (DLT).
With global frameworks emerging and regulated financial institutions launching early pilots, the era of uncertainty is coming to an end. No longer just speculative assets, stablecoins are becoming part of a broader programmable settlement layer that also includes tokenised deposits, capable of transforming how value moves within the banking sector, across borders, time zones, and rails.
Regulatory clarity is arriving
The turning point has come through policy. In the UK, the Bank of England recently released a draft regime for systemic sterling-denominated stablecoins. The proposed rules emphasise price stability, redemption rights, and strong reserve backing. Under the plan, oversight would involve the Bank of England (BoE) alongside authorities including the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), ensuring that systemic providers meet rigorous prudential standards.
Crucially, regulators have also clarified that tokenised deposits sit within the existing commercial bank money framework, reinforcing them as digitally enhanced deposits rather than a new asset class.
In the United States, the GENIUS Act passed earlier this year, establishing the first national framework for stablecoin issuance, reserves, and redemption mechanics. The FDIC is expected to publish its first proposed rules within one year of passage, providing a path for regulated issuers to gain certification and operate under formal supervision.
Together, these developments move the conversation from if banks can use stablecoins and tokenised deposits to how they will integrate them into payments infrastructure. This regulatory certainty removes the hesitation that kept banks on the sidelines and opens the door to scaled institutional adoption. 2026 will focus on integration, orchestration, and readiness for production-scale deployment across corporate, cross-border, treasury workflows, and more importantly, the co-existence of stablecoins and deposit token-based rails with the existing rails like instant payments, RTGS, etc.
Financial institutions are already piloting
Several banks have moved into active pilots integrating stablecoins into real payment workflows. In November, U.S. Bank launched a pilot for testing bank-grade stablecoin issuance on the Stellar blockchain, in collaboration with the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) and PwC. The pilot includes controls such as asset freezing, reversibility, and transparent reserve visibility, demonstrating how regulated digital money can be issued and settled safely on public infrastructure.
At the same time, global banks are piloting tokenised deposits for intrabank settlement, on-chain liquidity management, and delivery-versus-payment (DvP) use cases, particularly where balance-sheet integration and regulatory certainty are critical.
This reflects a broader shift. According to a 2025 survey, more than half of financial executives believe stablecoins and tokenised deposits will play a long-term role in the financial system. Still, adoption depends on overcoming integration and compliance challenges: on/off-ramping, legacy system integration, performance requirements, and maintaining trust through transparency and regulatory alignment.
Stablecoins offer what traditional rails cannot
According to McKinsey, more than $225 billion in stablecoins circulate globally, yet only around 6% is used for payments. EY projects stablecoins will account for $4 trillion in cross-border volume by 2030, or roughly 10% of total cross-border values.Further, tokenised deposits are expected to modernize domestic high-value settlement, intraday liquidity, and on-chain cash legs for tokenised securities, without displacing existing deposit models.
Major real-time systems such as, The Clearing House’s RTP®, the Federal Reserve’s FedNow®, and the UK’s Faster Payments Service (FPS) already handle near-instant settlement at a national scale. However, cross-border corridors remain inefficient, characterized by delays, limited transparency, and high fees. Regulated stablecoins and tokenised deposits together enable 24/7 settlement, programmable liquidity, atomic workflows, and instant reconciliation across currencies and time zones.
This aligns directly with corporate treasurers’ expectations for faster liquidity, richer data, and money that moves as fluidly as information.
Integration requires modern, multi-rail, and interoperable architecture
Stablecoins and tokenised deposits cannot exist in isolation. To deliver real value at scale, they must function within an intelligent, protocol-fluent orchestration layer that supports the coexistence of stablecoin rails, deposit token-based rails, and traditional payment systems. While funding in fiat currency continues to move over established rails, these emerging forms of digital money must integrate seamlessly with them rather than operate as parallel silos.
SWIFT’s blockchain interoperability initiative underscores the global trend: legacy networks are preparing for a future where tokenised deposits, stablecoins, CBDCs, and traditional rails coexist within a single payments fabric.
Modernisation will depend on infrastructure that is:
- Cloud-native and highly available, operating continuously at scale
- API-first and protocol-agnostic, enabling plug-and-play integration
- Equipped with dynamic, context-aware routing across traditional and tokenised rails
- Designed for high throughput, high-resilience digital settlement
- Deeply interoperable across DeFi networks, wallets, and core ledgers
Without this, stablecoins and tokenised deposits risk becoming niche instruments that are technically available but practically unusable.
Regulation is not a barrier; it’s the enabler
Some financial institutions still view regulation as a limiting force, but the emerging frameworks are doing the opposite, transforming stablecoins into trusted financial tools while anchoring tokenised deposits firmly within existing banking and prudential models. The GENIUS Act, for instance, prohibits yield or interest in stablecoins, reducing the risk of disintermediation and speculative misuse.
These rules give banks clarity. Whether they choose to issue their own coins, deploy tokenised deposits, partner with licensed providers, or integrate external stablecoin rails, financial institutions now have the necessary guardrails to experiment without crossing regulatory lines.
As the Swiss Bankers Association recently confirmed through its blockchain-based pilot, legal feasibility isn’t the challenge; scale and coordination are. The study notes that widespread adoption will require “design adjustments and increased cooperation with other banks, infrastructure providers, and authorities.”
2026: A narrow window to lead
With momentum building and the frameworks in place, the next 18 to 24 months present a strategic window. Banks that move now can:
- Launch stablecoin corridors for cross-border payments
- Build multi-rail orchestration layers capable of embedding stablecoins alongside FedNow®, RTP®, ACH, and SWIFT
- Embed real-time compliance, auditability, and programmability from day one
- Integrate seamlessly with centralised and decentralised infrastructure
Those that delay risk retrofitting stablecoin capabilities into brittle systems while competitors scale with programmable rails and real-time liquidity.
The most strategic view of stablecoins is evolution: stablecoins and tokenised deposits are complementary building blocks of next-generation payment and liquidity infrastructure. As the market moves from experimentation to adoption, success will hinge equally on regulatory intent and on execution at scale. That execution requires cloud-native, API-first, multi-rail platforms that are flexible and extensible, with the ability to intelligently orchestrate stablecoins, tokenised deposits, and traditional payment rails within a single, resilient architecture. The result being that stablecoins and any other future emerging digital assets are “just another rail” as they become available. Providers purpose-built for modern, real-time payments will play an important role in helping banks translate strategy into production-grade capability and compete in the next phase of digital money.
Deepak Gupta is Chief Product, Engineering, and Delivery Officer at Volante Technologies. A career innovator in cloud and software-as-a-service, his industry experience includes senior executive roles as General Manager at CoreLogic, President and CEO at Workstream, and CEO at iSpheres. Deepak was also SVP and GM of Peoplesoft’s and Chief Architect of Oracle’s SaaS business units, where he led the organizations’ transformation from on-premise enterprise software providers to SaaS leaders.
