"Like a T-bill that settles in 10 seconds": what the analogy gets right and wrong

What the analogy gets right

A fiat-backed payment stablecoin is a claim on a pool of reserves made up largely of short-term Treasury bills, overnight repurchase agreements and cash. GENIUS limits Treasury reserves to maturities of 93 days or less.^[1] Circle reports USDC reserves in exactly these assets, partly through a BlackRock-managed money market fund.^[2][3] Unlike a T-bill, the token moves 24/7 between wallets and settles in seconds to minutes, depending on the network.^[4]

The critical difference: the holder doesn't earn the yield

A T-bill owner earns interest. A stablecoin holder does not. GENIUS prohibits issuers from paying holders "any form of interest or yield" for holding, using or retaining a payment stablecoin.^[1] The issuer keeps the income on the reserves; that income is the core of its business model. The holder gets dollar stability plus speed, not the yield.

The analogy also overstates certainty. A T-bill is a direct obligation of the US government. A stablecoin is a claim on a private issuer, and its value depends on that issuer's reserves, operations and ability to redeem. Stablecoins are not FDIC- or NCUSIF-insured and are not backed by the US government.^[1]

Yield-bearing alternatives are a different category

Tokenized Treasury and money market funds pass the yield to holders. They are typically securities. BlackRock's BUIDL fund, for example, launched on Ethereum in March 2024 through a private placement to qualified investors, with a $5 million minimum.^[5] The SEC has said that stablecoins other than payment stablecoins issued by a PPSI may be securities depending on the facts and circumstances.^[6] These products sit outside the GENIUS framework and carry different legal, investment-authority and risk questions.

For banks and credit unions: deposits

Because payment stablecoins can't pay interest, they compete with transaction balances (checking and share drafts) on convenience, speed and availability rather than on rate. A presentation to Treasury's Borrowing Advisory Committee in April 2025 illustrated about $6.6 trillion of US commercial bank transactional deposits as the deposit type potentially "at risk" of shifting to stablecoins. That figure covers banks only, not credit unions, and it is an illustration, not a forecast.^[7]

Platform rewards on stablecoin balances could narrow the rate gap.^[8] Deposit flight is a recurring theme in the Stablecoin Risk Report, which tracks reserve, liquidity and regulatory developments relevant to bank and credit union balance sheets every month.