Why Banks Are Now Focused on Running Digital Assets as Core Infrastructure

TLDR:

• Banks like JPMorgan and HSBC have moved digital assets from pilots into live production infrastructure.
• Treasury, custody, and audit functions must be rebuilt to support 24/7 digital asset operations at scale.
• The OCC’s 2026 stablecoin NPRM requires issuers to prove they can access and monetize reserve assets.
• Public stablecoin rails processed an estimated $350 billion in payment volume throughout the year 2025.

Digital assets are no longer a question of whether banks should engage. Leading institutions like JPMorgan, HSBC, and Société Générale have already moved into production.

The harder challenge now is scaling these programs across treasury, custody, compliance, and client flows. Circle’s Alison Kaufman addressed this shift at a recent Current event, noting the conversation has fundamentally changed over the past five years.

Operating Models Are Where Digital Asset Programs Stall

Banks often clear technical feasibility during pilots but struggle when integration reaches core systems. Every architectural choice creates downstream effects across the institution.

Selecting a blockchain affects custody design. Custody design shapes how assets reach clients. Settlement logic then touches liquidity management and funding models throughout the organization.

Kaufman noted that fund flow and technical architecture discussions signal when things get serious. “Once we arrive at this stage of discussion, we’re moving beyond the conceptual,” she said. That transition is where most programs slow down or stop entirely.

Treasury operations face a particularly sharp adjustment. Most US bank treasury floors run on cut-off-driven daily cycles, not 24/7 coverage.

Digital assets require continuous operations, and current staffing models were not built for that. Internal audit functions also lack the tools to assess smart-contract, oracle, and bridge risk today.

The OCC’s spring 2026 stablecoin NPRM added regulatory weight to the gap. It requires permitted payment stablecoin issuers to demonstrate the capability to access and monetize reserve assets. That is a capability most institutions would have to build from the ground up.

Interoperability Separates Closed Networks From Market-Ready Infrastructure

Many banks are currently experimenting with tokenized deposits inside closed networks. The strategic question, however, is whether those assets can connect to the broader ecosystem.

A tokenized deposit that only settles within one bank’s network captures limited value compared to one that interoperates with external rails.

Public stablecoin rails carried an estimated $350 billion in payment volume in 2025. Visa’s settlement network now spans nine blockchains, including Circle’s Arc. These numbers reflect a market moving toward open architecture, not closed loops.

Banks holding closed-loop positions too long will pay a connectivity cost later. Cross-border exposure through regulated multi-currency stablecoins, 24/7 public corridors, and real-time settlement against tokenized cash equivalents are all client capabilities. Each one requires infrastructure the bank does not own internally.

Pulling operating-model design and interoperability into a single workstream is the practical path forward. The institutions that build this architecture properly over the next four to six quarters will set the patterns others follow. Those that bolt onchain capability onto old models will face compounding costs as the market moves on.

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