Tokenized deposits vs stablecoins: what's the difference?

Banks are putting dollars on blockchains in two different forms. One is the stablecoin. The other is the tokenized deposit. They can look the same in a wallet, but they are different claims, issued by different kinds of firms, with different backing.

What is a stablecoin?

Brookings describes payment stablecoins as "privately offered digital assets that can be used for peer-to-peer payments redeemable for U.S. dollars at par value." It notes that "The GENIUS Act requires payment stablecoins be backed at least 1-to-1 by a segregated pool of liquid and low-risk reserve assets." Issuers "can be nonbanks with federal or state charters or subsidiaries of banks."

The largest cash-backed stablecoins in our count are Tether's USDT and Circle's USDC. Together with four others, cash-backed stablecoins total $255.66 billion on public blockchains as of November 9, 2026 (our stablecoin count).

What is a tokenized deposit?

Brookings calls tokenized bank deposits "a digital representation of bank deposits on a blockchain or a distributed ledger." The money is still a deposit at the bank. It sits on the bank's balance sheet, and Brookings notes that "Tokenized deposits are backed by deposit insurance (up to the statutory limit of $250,000)."

A New York Fed staff report by Xuesong Huang and Todd Keister sets out the core difference: "Stablecoins in our model are backed by safe assets, while banks issue deposits (both traditional and tokenized) to fund a portfolio of safe and risky assets."

How do they compare?

Which banks have launched tokenized deposits?

J.P. Morgan launched its deposit token, JPMD, for institutional clients on Base in November 2025. It brought the token to Ethereum on October 19, 2026, saying it is "Available to J.P. Morgan's institutional clients."

Standard Chartered launched tokenised deposits for corporate clients in Hong Kong on November 2, 2026, using the HKMA's EnsembleTX. We covered that launch in our Standard Chartered article.

Why don't we count tokenized deposits yet?

Our counts cover tokens we can read directly on public blockchains, using addresses the issuer publishes or confirms in writing. Banks have not published circulating figures or full address lists for their deposit tokens, and some run on private networks. When a bank publishes addresses we can read, we will count them separately from stablecoins so the two are never mixed.

What to watch

• Whether banks publish how many deposit tokens are in circulation.
• Whether deposit tokens can move between banks, not only within one bank's clients.
• More banks launching deposit tokens on public blockchains.