SoFi Technologies has entered the stablecoin market with the launch of SoFiUSD, a fully reserved U.S. dollar stablecoin issued by SoFi Bank. The company says this marks the first time a U.S. national bank has issued a stablecoin on a public, permissionless blockchain, a move that places SoFi at the center of growing efforts to modernize financial settlement infrastructure.
Announced Thursday, SoFiUSD is designed to support faster and more efficient money movement for banks, fintechs, and large enterprise platforms. The stablecoin is initially live on Ethereum, with plans to expand to additional blockchains over time.
At its core, SoFiUSD is positioned less as a consumer crypto product and more as a settlement and payments tool. By integrating with SoFi’s banking infrastructure, partners can use the stablecoin to move funds nearly instantly, 24 hours a day, at costs measured in fractions of a cent.
Built for institutional settlement
SoFi Bank is regulated by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. According to the company, SoFiUSD is fully backed 1:1 by U.S. dollar cash reserves and is redeemable on demand.
Because SoFi operates as a federally chartered bank, it can hold these reserves directly in cash at its Federal Reserve account. The company says this structure reduces both liquidity and credit risk, while allowing any yield generated from reserves to be shared with partners and, potentially, stablecoin holders.
Beyond using SoFiUSD directly, SoFi plans to offer infrastructure that allows banks, fintechs, and enterprise clients to issue their own white-label stablecoins. These tokens would run on SoFi’s bank-grade systems while remaining compatible with public blockchains.
Anthony Noto, SoFi’s chief executive officer, said the launch applies the firm’s regulatory framework to long-standing inefficiencies in financial services, including slow settlement times, fragmented providers, and unclear reserve practices.
“Blockchain is a technology super cycle that will fundamentally change finance, not just in payments, but across every area of money,” Noto said.
He added that combining a national bank charter with transparent, fully reserved onchain assets creates a safer and more efficient way to move funds.
Expanding beyond crypto trading
SoFiUSD is expected to be used across multiple areas of the company’s business. In addition to supporting settlement within SoFi’s crypto trading platform, the stablecoin may be used by card networks, retailers, and other merchants looking for lower-cost payment rails.
The company also plans to integrate SoFiUSD into SoFi Pay, its payments product, for international remittances and point-of-sale transactions. For platform partners that collectively process billions of transactions each year, the stablecoin could serve as an alternative settlement method alongside traditional payment systems.
Over time, SoFi says SoFiUSD will also be made available to its retail members, expanding its role beyond institutional use cases.
Part of a broader industry shift
SoFi’s announcement comes amid a wave of stablecoin initiatives from established fintech and payments firms. Companies such as Klarna, Western Union, and Stripe have all disclosed plans to launch or support their own dollar-backed digital tokens, reflecting growing interest in blockchain-based settlement as an alternative to legacy systems.
For traditional financial institutions, stablecoins offer the promise of faster settlement, continuous availability, and greater transparency compared with existing rails. However, regulatory clarity and reserve management remain key considerations, particularly for consumer-facing products.
SoFi’s bank-issued model addresses some of these concerns by anchoring the stablecoin within the existing U.S. banking system.
Building on regulatory momentum
The stablecoin launch also builds on SoFi’s recent expansion in crypto services. In November, the company became the first national bank to allow consumers to buy, sell, and hold cryptocurrencies directly within its app. The offering supports nearly 30 digital assets under the SoFi Crypto brand.
SoFi previously offered crypto trading through a partnership with Coinbase beginning in 2019, but that service was paused in 2023 due to regulatory constraints. Those limits eased earlier this year when the OCC issued new interpretive guidance confirming that banks are permitted to offer crypto custody and trading services.
“One of the holds we’ve had for the last two years was in cryptocurrency,” Noto said last month. “We were not allowed to do that as a bank. But in March of this year, the OCC came out with an interpretive letter that it’s now permissible.”
Looking ahead
With SoFiUSD, the company is positioning itself not just as a consumer fintech, but as a provider of blockchain-based financial infrastructure. Whether bank-issued stablecoins gain widespread adoption remains to be seen, but SoFi’s entry signals growing confidence among regulated institutions that digital settlement is moving into the financial mainstream.
For now, SoFiUSD represents a notable step in the convergence of traditional banking and public blockchain technology, offering a glimpse of how money may move in the years ahead.
