Ethereum hosts launch of first stablecoin from US national bank

A nationally chartered US bank just put a stablecoin on Ethereum. That sentence alone would have sounded like science fiction three years ago.

SoFi Bank, N.A., the banking subsidiary of SoFi Technologies, launched SoFiUSD on May 27, making it the first stablecoin ever issued by a US national bank. The token is live on Ethereum and Solana, redeemable 1:1 for US dollars, and accessible to nearly 15 million SoFi members directly inside the company’s banking app.

What SoFi actually built

SoFiUSD isn’t a side project or a proof-of-concept buried in a press release. It’s integrated into SoFi’s consumer banking platform, meaning members can buy, sell, hold, and convert the stablecoin without leaving the app they already use for checking accounts and student loan refinancing.

The reserves backing SoFiUSD are held at the Federal Reserve. It’s cash, parked at the safest institution in American finance, backing a digital dollar on a public blockchain.

SoFi initially deployed the token on public blockchains back in December 2025, quietly positioning itself as infrastructure for both retail and enterprise payments. The May 27 launch represents the consumer-facing rollout, the moment the stablecoin went from technical milestone to actual product.

The dual-chain approach, Ethereum and Solana, gives SoFi flexibility. Ethereum offers the deepest liquidity and broadest DeFi ecosystem. Solana provides speed and lower transaction costs. SoFi has indicated plans to expand to additional blockchains over time.

Why a bank-issued stablecoin matters

A bank charter comes with regulatory obligations that crypto-native issuers don’t face, but it also comes with something they can’t easily replicate: institutional trust. When a bank with a national charter tells customers their stablecoin is backed by reserves at the Fed, it carries a different weight than when a company headquartered in the British Virgin Islands says roughly the same thing.

Previous attempts by banks to issue stablecoins have largely been confined to wholesale or interbank settlement layers. JPMorgan’s JPM Coin, for instance, was designed for institutional clients moving large sums between accounts. SoFi took a fundamentally different path by putting its stablecoin directly into a consumer app used by millions of people.

What this means for investors

Circle and Tether aren’t going anywhere overnight, but SoFiUSD introduces a new category of competitor — one that doesn’t need to convince regulators it should be allowed to exist, because it already has a bank charter.

For SoFi shareholders, the stablecoin represents a potential new revenue stream. Stablecoin issuers earn yield on the reserves backing their tokens. Circle generated substantial revenue from USDC reserves during the high-interest-rate environment. SoFi can now play the same game, earning interest on Federal Reserve deposits while offering customers a digital dollar that costs nothing to hold.

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