The program is expected to process more than $25 billion in annualized volume, according to SoFi’s announcement. Settlement is already live through Mastercard’s global payments network, with SoFiUSD serving as the underlying digital settlement asset.
That matters beyond SoFi. The development introduces a potentially important competitive question for Ripple’s RLUSD: if large regulated banks can issue their own stablecoins and plug them directly into global payment networks, will they still need third-party stablecoins for settlement?
SoFi Takes Stablecoin Settlement From Pilot to Production
SoFiUSD is issued by SoFi Bank, a nationally chartered U.S. bank regulated by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. The token is redeemable 1:1 for U.S. dollars and backed primarily by cash reserves.
Unlike many previous stablecoin payment experiments, the SoFi-Mastercard arrangement is already operating in a live production environment rather than remaining a proof of concept.
SoFi said merchants do not need to hold stablecoins or build new blockchain infrastructure themselves. Settlement can instead move through SoFi’s banking platform, with businesses receiving funds into a bank account and retaining the ability to convert them into cash.
The model arrives as Mastercard has already been expanding its broader stablecoin strategy. Earlier Coinpaper coverage examined its move toward 24/7 stablecoin settlement, while Mastercard has also worked with Ripple, Gemini and WebBank on a pilot using RLUSD to settle fiat credit-card transactions on the XRP Ledger. That RLUSD pilot gives the SoFi rollout particular significance: Mastercard is not betting on only one stablecoin model.
Bank-Issued Stablecoins Create a New Question for RLUSD
Ripple has positioned RLUSD as an institutional stablecoin for payments, settlement, liquidity management and tokenized finance. Its market capitalization recently crossed $2 billion as Ripple expanded the asset across trading, payments and institutional infrastructure.
SoFi’s approach is structurally different.
Instead of adopting an external stablecoin, the bank issues its own digital dollar and uses it as settlement infrastructure for its existing card business. If other banks follow that model, the stablecoin market could evolve into a mix of issuer-specific bank tokens, independent regulated stablecoins such as RLUSD and USDC, and tokenized deposits.
| Model | Example | Issuer | Main use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bank-issued stablecoin | SoFiUSD | Bank | Payments and settlement |
| Independent regulated stablecoin | RLUSD | Ripple | Institutional payments, settlement, liquidity |
| Tokenized deposit | Bank-specific | Commercial bank | Onchain representation of deposits |
That does not automatically weaken Ripple’s strategy. A fragmented ecosystem could actually increase demand for interoperability and liquidity between different forms of digital money.
Ripple has increasingly positioned itself as a broader institutional-finance provider spanning custody, payments, stablecoins and treasury infrastructure, rather than relying on a single product. Its broader institutional strategy may therefore become more important if banks increasingly choose to issue their own digital currencies.
