Standard Chartered's Crypto Warning to US Banks

A new report published by Standard Chartered warns that stablecoins could withdraw approximately 500 billion dollars in deposits from U.S. banks by 2028. The global banking giant Standard Chartered has drawn attention by providing a detailed analysis of the impact of digital assets on the traditional financial system.

The bank's digital asset research unit emphasizes that with the acceleration of stablecoin adoption, traditional bank deposits face significant structural risks. According to the report, the group that will be most affected by these losses will be regional banks that rely heavily on deposit income. Geoffrey Kendrick, head of digital asset research at Standard Chartered, pointed out that payments and fundamental banking operations are increasingly shifting to blockchain-based alternatives. Kendrick notes that they expect the stablecoin market to reach a value of 2 trillion dollars by 2030.

According to analysts, U.S. regional banks will be most affected by deposit outflows, as a significant portion of their income models relies on the difference between deposit interest rates and loan interest rates. Therefore, the shift of deposits to stablecoins has the potential to put serious pressure on these banks' main income sources. On the other hand, major investment banks are expected to be less affected by this situation as they are not as dependent on deposit funds as regional banks.

Analysts argue that only a minimal portion of reserves of leading stablecoins like Tether (USDT) and Circle (USDC) being held in banks makes it difficult to compensate for the loss of funds in the system. Legal regulations across the U.S. also play a significant role in this transformation. Discussions surrounding the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act have brought large banks and cryptocurrency exchanges face to face. The CEO of Bank of America mentioned that if stablecoins are allowed to pay interest, they could withdraw up to 6 trillion dollars in deposits from banks.

Current data indicates that the total supply of dollar-indexed stablecoins is approximately 300 billion dollars. If Standard Chartered's predictions come true, the market cap could nearly triple by 2028 solely from flows coming from banks. This situation once again highlights how decisive tokenization and digital assets will be in the future of the financial system.