SoFi to Launch Retail Interest-Bearing Tokenized Deposits

By Dean Seal

SoFi Technologies is rolling out a new product that works like a high-yield savings account for funds that can immediately be deployed for crypto purchases or transfers.

The program, SoFi Earn, pays 4.4% interest on funds stored as federally insured deposits that are tokenized and instantly convertible either back into cash or into SoFi's stablecoin, which can then be used to make cryptocurrency purchases or transfer funds over the blockchain.

"Your money should keep working for you until the moment you need it," Chief Executive Anthony Noto said.

Previous attempts to offer yield-bearing crypto savings accounts have either collapsed during crypto crashes or been blocked by federal regulators for having hazy legal statuses. In 2021, Coinbase scrapped a yield program, called Coinbase Lend, that the Securities and Exchange Commission had deemed to be an unregistered security.

The Genius Act passed by Congress last year explicitly prohibited stablecoin issuers from paying interest on holdings.

SoFi's product bypasses the ban and other previous roadblocks with a two-tiered system: it accepts funds as federally insured commercial bank deposit liabilities on SoFi's balance sheet that earn interest, which can then be converted into stablecoins.

To date, large institutions have built wholesale settlement networks and tokenized Treasury funds, but no national bank has offered a federally insured tokenized deposit for everyday customers.

SoFi is launching the product during a marked shift in federal regulators' stance on digital assets. The SEC, which currently has just two members on its five-seat commission, has ditched the previous administration's enforcement-forward approach and instead embraced efforts to integrate crypto into the financial system.

Write to Dean Seal at dean.seal@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 22, 2026 08:14 ET (12:14 GMT)