BIS Quantitative Paper Finds Banks Can Slow Stablecoin Adoption Just by Raising Deposit Rates

The industry has spent the year cataloging the supply-side buildout with predictable enthusiasm. We have watched Visa Direct move stablecoin-powered cross-border payments into commercial production, while Mastercard has wired its Global Money Platform into 130 countries. The metrics are functional enough, with stablecoin payment volume exceeding $400 billion in the first eight months of 2026. Yet, this infrastructure-first narrative, while technically accurate, tends to obscure a persistent, structural ceiling on the demand side: the humble bank deposit rate, which remains a stubborn gravitational force for capital. A new BIS Working Paper #1382 , authored by Rashad Ahmed and Iñaki Aldasoro, provides a sobering look at why stablecoin adoption is not just a matter of better technology, but a tug-of-war with traditional banking.

BeCrypto News shows a short excerpt and links to the publisher. The full report belongs to Forkast.