Thirty-nine U.S. state banking associations are joining forces to build a blockchain network for banks, marking a major step by traditional finance into stablecoins, tokenized deposits and blockchain-based payments.
The newly formed BankChain Alliance announced Tuesday that it plans to develop an industry-owned, industry-designed and industry-governed blockchain network, targeting a launch in 2027.
Together, the participating associations represent 3,283 banks holding $21.8 trillion in assets. The project remains in its early stages and has not yet selected a technology partner.
The initiative comes as banks increasingly move beyond experimenting with blockchain to building infrastructure around it.
39 US Banking Groups Are Building Their Own Stablecoin Blockchain
Banks Want Their Own Blockchain Network
BankChain Alliance says its network will allow financial institutions to offer digital banking services while maintaining the security, regulatory compliance and customer protections associated with traditional banking.
The proposed network will support smart payments, tokenized deposits, stablecoins and automated settlement. It is also expected to interoperate with other networks, rather than operate as a closed system.
Banks across the country will have an opportunity to participate in ownership of the network.
Kathy Kraninger, president and CEO of the Florida Bankers Association and a former director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, is serving as the alliance’s interim chair.
Kraninger said the initiative is intended to give banks of all sizes access to modern financial technology while allowing them to continue serving customers across rural, urban and regional communities.
That could be particularly relevant for smaller banks, which often lack the resources of Wall Street institutions to develop blockchain infrastructure independently.
BankChain is still looking for a technology partner, however, meaning its underlying architecture and technical specifications have yet to be announced.
39 banks in the alliance
Stablecoins Are at the Center
The project arrives as traditional banks and crypto companies compete more directly over the future of digital dollars.
Stablecoins have become a major part of the digital-asset economy, while banks are exploring tokenized deposits as a way to bring existing bank money onto blockchain networks.
Tokenized deposits essentially represent traditional deposits in digital form. They can potentially move through blockchain infrastructure while remaining connected to regulated banks.
For financial institutions, this offers a potential alternative to allowing crypto-native stablecoins to become the dominant method for blockchain-based dollar payments.
BankChain’s focus on both stablecoins and tokenized deposits suggests banks want to participate directly in the market rather than leave blockchain-based money movement to crypto companies.
The timing is particularly significant because the industry is also fighting over stablecoin rules in Washington.
Banks Challenge Stablecoin Yield Rules
In July, the American Bankers Association, Independent Community Bankers of America and dozens of state banking associations urged senators to tighten stablecoin provisions in the proposed CLARITY Act.
The groups objected to language in Section 404 covering rewards on payment stablecoins. While the bill would prohibit returns simply for holding stablecoins, it preserves certain activity-based rewards.
Banking groups have warned that ambiguities could allow some stablecoin products to function like interest-bearing deposits.
Their concern is straightforward: deposits provide banks with funding for lending. If consumers and businesses shift money from bank accounts into stablecoins offering similar economic incentives, banks could lose an important source of funding for households, small businesses and local communities.
The debate has become more important since the GENIUS Act, signed into law in 2025, created a federal framework for payment stablecoins in the U.S.
Federal regulators are now developing rules to implement the legislation, including requirements covering stablecoin issuers and customer identification.
The banking industry’s position creates an unusual dynamic. Banks are seeking tighter limits on stablecoins that could compete with deposits while simultaneously developing infrastructure that could help banks participate in the digital-dollar market themselves.
Traditional Finance Is Moving On-Chain
BankChain is also emerging alongside several other blockchain initiatives from the traditional financial system.
In July, Swift announced that its blockchain-based shared ledger was ready for initial use, with 17 banks across six continents preparing to test live transactions involving tokenized deposits. Participants include Citi, BNY, Wells Fargo, HSBC, UBS, BNP Paribas, Standard Chartered, DBS and MUFG.
The system is designed to support around-the-clock movement of tokenized deposits while using existing infrastructure for final settlement.
Major banks are also exploring blockchain for custody, tokenized investment products and settlement.
The trend suggests the financial industry’s attitude toward blockchain is changing. Instead of treating the technology primarily as a challenge from the crypto sector, banks are increasingly looking at it as infrastructure they can adapt to their own regulated systems.
A Race for Control of Digital Finance
BankChain Alliance is still an early-stage project. It must select a technology partner, build the network and persuade individual banks to participate. Interoperability with existing payment systems and other blockchains will also be critical.
But its creation marks an important shift.
For years, blockchain and stablecoins were largely associated with crypto companies attempting to build alternatives to traditional finance. Now banks are developing their own blockchain infrastructure while simultaneously lobbying lawmakers over how competing stablecoins should operate.
If BankChain succeeds, thousands of U.S. banks could gain access to shared infrastructure for digital payments, tokenized deposits and automated settlement without abandoning the regulatory framework of traditional banking.
The bigger competition is therefore no longer simply about whether banks will adopt blockchain.
It is about who will control the infrastructure of the next generation of banking.
