That may be effective political messaging, but it turns community banks into a convenient talking point in a much broader fight against competition. Congress should not kneecap one of the clearest advances in payment infrastructure to protect banks from a threat that has not been proven.
That threat sounds less convincing when community banks are understood on their own terms. They do not survive because customers lack another way to move money. They survive because of trust, relationships, and services that stablecoins do not replace. A farmer who relies on a local banker for seasonal credit, equipment financing, operating loans, and decades of institutional knowledge is not making the same decision as a fintech company choosing a faster settlement rail.
Community banks hold only about one-tenth of U.S. banking assets. But they make up more than a third of small business loans and nearly two-thirds of agricultural loans nationwide. That is why this debate should be about more than deposits.
The banking lobby’s argument treats stablecoins as if every dollar that moves onchain is a dollar leaving the banking system. That is not how the market actually works. Stablecoin activity still relies on banks, regulated issuers, custodians, payment companies and fiat access points. The question is not whether banks disappear. The question is which institutions adapt quickly enough to participate in the next phase of money movement.
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