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Fintech

SoFi moves its $25bn card programme onto its own stablecoin, and settlement becomes a product

A nationally chartered bank is moving its entire debit and credit card book onto a token it issues itself. The prize is liquidity, not novelty, and the test is whether other issuers and merchants follow.

· · 5 min read
Oil still life for: SoFi moves its $25bn card programme onto its own stablecoin, and settlement becomes a product
Illustration: Invest Times

SoFi Technologies and Mastercard said on Tuesday, September 22, that stablecoin settlement is now live across the debit and credit card programme of SoFi Bank, N.A. The bank is migrating its entire $25 billion card programme, which is expected to process more than $25 billion in annualised volume, to settlement in SoFiUSD, a dollar token it issues itself. According to the companies, transactions are already being recorded on the blockchain. SoFi describes SoFiUSD as the first stablecoin issued by a nationally chartered bank, and says the step took six months from the partnership announced in March.

The announcement matters because it moves stablecoins out of the pilot stage and into the plumbing of an ordinary consumer card business. Cardholders will see nothing different. What changes is the back office: how a bank and a card network move money between themselves after the swipe, and when that money becomes available. If a regulated bank can run a book of this size on its own token, the question for other issuers is no longer whether the model works, but whether they can afford to stay on the old timetable.

What was announced

The partnership dates from March 3, when the two companies said SoFi Bank would settle its own Mastercard credit and debit transactions in SoFiUSD, and that Galileo, SoFi's payments technology platform, would offer the same option to the banks and card issuers it serves. Reports at the time said Mastercard's Multi-Token Network was expected to support the token alongside fiat currencies and tokenised deposits, with settlement possible 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

This week's release turns that plan into production for SoFi's own book. SoFiUSD is issued by SoFi Bank, an OCC-regulated national bank, is redeemable one for one in US dollars and is backed by reserves consisting primarily of cash. The company's own disclosure is blunt about what the token is not: it is not a deposit, it is not insured by the FDIC or SIPC, it is not bank guaranteed, it is not legal tender and it may lose value. That distinction matters. A bank is standing behind the issuance, but the holder is not protected the way a depositor is.

SoFi brings real scale to the experiment. It reports 15.8 million members, and its technology arm, SoFi Tech Solutions, serves more than 134 million accounts globally for banks, fintechs and brands.

Why settlement, and why now

Card settlement is the quiet step that follows authorisation, when funds actually move between issuer, network and acquirer. Traditional windows run on banking days, which means weekends and holidays leave money in transit. Moving that leg onto a token that settles around the clock is a liquidity improvement, not a consumer feature, and it is aimed squarely at the treasury functions of banks and merchants.

SoFi's pitch to merchants reflects that. Its chief executive, Anthony Noto, said businesses would not need to hold stablecoins, build new infrastructure or change how they operate. Merchants that use SoFi's Big Business Banking platform can receive settlement funds instantly in a SoFi Bank account and withdraw them to cash at any hour and, the company says, at zero cost. Sherri Haymond, Mastercard's global head of digital commercialisation, framed the launch as a move from exploration to implementation inside a production environment.

There is also a commercial logic for SoFi that goes beyond its own card book. The company says it is in active talks with large US merchants, ranging from multinational retailers to technology service platforms, about stablecoin settlement arrangements, and that it will explore cross-border payments and remittances with Mastercard. A merchant that agrees to settle through SoFiUSD and receive funds at SoFi Bank becomes a banking relationship, not just a counterparty. Settlement, in other words, is being used as a distribution channel for business banking.

The size of the token versus the size of the flow

Investors should keep two numbers apart. According to on-chain data reported by Solana Compass, roughly $332 million of SoFiUSD was in circulation in late August, about $232.6 million of it on Solana and around $100 million on Ethereum. The card programme, by contrast, is expected to settle more than $25 billion a year. Those figures are not in conflict. Circulating supply measures how many tokens exist at one moment, while settlement volume measures how often they turn over. A modest float can carry a large annual flow if it moves quickly.

That arithmetic is the heart of the business case. A bank-issued token used for high-velocity settlement does not need a large balance to be useful, and every dollar of reserves backing it sits with the issuer. If merchants and other issuers begin to hold settlement balances in SoFiUSD rather than sweeping them out immediately, the float grows, and so does the value of the arrangement for SoFi.

The chain choice is also telling. Mastercard added Solana to its stablecoin settlement network on June 3, alongside Arbitrum, Base, Canton, Ethereum, Polygon, Tempo and XRPL, according to Solana Compass, which also lists ARQ, CBW Bank, Cross River, Lead Bank and Nuvei among early participants in the programme. Visa launched USDC settlement on Solana in December 2025, as both Solana Compass and Genfinity note. The networks are not choosing a single token. They are building rails that can carry several, which leaves issuers to compete on trust, liquidity and price.

What could go wrong

The risks are mostly operational and regulatory rather than technological. Settlement is a function where failures are measured in hours and reputations in years, and SoFi is now moving its entire card book onto a new mechanism. Any disruption in minting, redemption or on-chain recording would be felt by merchants immediately. The token's uninsured status may also limit how much corporate treasurers are willing to leave in it, however strong the issuer.

Then there is the question of reach. The live launch covers SoFi's own programme. The larger opportunity, extending the same path to other issuers through Galileo, depends on banks that may prefer to issue their own tokens or wait for industry utilities rather than settle in a competitor's coin. Merchants, for their part, have so far been offered the option; none has been named.

Our view

This is the most consequential production use of a bank-issued stablecoin in American card payments so far, precisely because it is unglamorous. SoFi has chosen the part of the payment chain where faster money has a clear value, kept the consumer experience untouched and wrapped the token inside a national bank. That is a more credible path to adoption than consumer wallets or speculative trading.

The strategic intent is equally clear: settlement is being turned into a reason for businesses to bank with SoFi, and Galileo gives it a channel to other issuers. Founders building payment and treasury software should assume that 24-hour settlement will become an expectation, not a differentiator. Investors should watch three things: whether SoFiUSD circulation rises meaningfully from its late-August level, whether a large merchant or a Galileo client publicly signs on, and whether rival banks answer with tokens of their own. If none of those happens within a year, this will remain an efficient back-office upgrade rather than a new franchise.

Sources

Filed under Fintech. Written by Invest Times Editorial under our editorial standards. Commentary and analysis for information only, not investment advice.

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