Bain & Company backs $320B stablecoin sector to rewire wholesale banking

A new report from the global consulting firm Bain & Company, one-third of the big three consulting firms with McKinsey & Company and Boston Consulting Group (BCG), has named stablecoins as central to the future of wholesale banking.

Bain & Company published the report on April 29, arguing that stablecoins and tokenized deposits are no longer seen as speculative crypto instruments but rather as strategic tools for moving money across wholesale banking. 

Big three consulting firm Bain & Company backs stablecoins 

Bain & Company recently released a report titled “From Hype to Hard Value: Stablecoin and the Great Rewiring of Wholesale Banking.” The report was authored by a six-person team including Ricardo Correia, Karim Ahmad, and Philipp Grimmig. 

In the report, Bain defines the current market trend as the “great rewiring of wholesale banking.” The firm argues that traditional banking has a “friction problem” due to the slow nature of cross-border payments. 

Beyond that, collateral management ties up billions in idle capital, and treasury operations are fragmented. Stablecoins, on the other hand, are “always-on” and programmable. Transactions are settled instantly instead of in days, and without the involvement of multiple intermediaries.

Bain argued that stablecoins and tokenized deposits have become key parts of the “future architecture of money movement” and should be treated as a priority by wholesale banks and global corporations.

Bain advises institutions to prioritize compliance and operational integration with a focus on foreign exchange settlement, derivatives collateral management, and corporate treasury liquidity.

Why is the CLARITY Act stalled? 

The stablecoin sector currently has a total market capitalization of $320 billion, according to data from DefiLlama. For banks and issuers to be capable of moving that money safely, they need the CLARITY Act, which is currently stalled. The bill focuses on clearly classifying which digital assets are securities and which are commodities.

Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) confirmed to Crypto in America host Eleanor Terrett that he is pushing for a committee vote on the CLARITY Act in May, but negotiations have been delayed. The GENIUS Act, which focuses on stablecoins specifically, has also been advancing through committee.

Cryptopolitan has reported that lobbyists for traditional banks are unable to accept any rules that would allow crypto platforms to offer interest on stablecoins, arguing it could pull trillions of dollars out of the traditional banking system.

Notably, the Trump admin has downplayed that scenario in an April paper, as Cryptopolitan reported. 

Senator Tillis is reportedly still working on finalizing the legislative text. He stated that he hopes to release the text 4-5 days before the vote to allow stakeholders to preview it. 

If the committee does not approve the bill by mid-May, the odds of it passing this year drop significantly due to the election calendar. Without these laws, the rewiring that Bain described cannot happen on a large scale.

There’s a middle ground between leaving money in the bank and rolling the dice in crypto. Start with this free video on decentralized finance.