SoFi Launches SOFIE Tokenized Deposit With FDIC Insurance and Interest Stablecoins Cannot Pay
SoFi Bank launched SoFi Earn, a tokenized deposit with the ticker SOFIE, on October 22. Each token is one dollar on deposit at SoFi Bank, a nationally chartered US bank. It pays 4.40% APY and carries FDIC insurance up to the usual limits. SoFi calls it the first tokenized deposit issued to consumers by a national bank. Nobody has offered a better-documented claim, so the label stands for now.
The interesting part is what SOFIE can turn into. Holders can swap it one for one into SoFiUSD, the stablecoin SoFi Bank issues on Ethereum and Solana. From there the money can buy crypto inside the SoFi app or move over blockchain rails at any hour. So the same dollar can sit as an insured, interest-paying deposit and become a stablecoin when it needs to travel.
The yield gap the GENIUS Act created
The GENIUS Act bars payment stablecoin issuers from paying interest to holders. That’s why USDC and USDT holders earn nothing directly. Their yield goes to the issuer, which keeps the income on the reserves. A tokenized deposit is a bank liability, and banks can pay interest on deposits. SOFIE sits on the bank side of that line, and SoFi has stablecoin rails on the other.
SoFi aims the product at what it calls idle digital dollars. It cites Federal Reserve research putting about $64 billion, roughly 21% of the stablecoin market, in forgotten or inactive wallets. That money earns nothing for its owners and a lot for the issuers. Chief executive Anthony Noto pitched SOFIE as the place to park it.
The rule itself is covered in our post on the GENIUS Act deadline. The law takes effect by January 18, 2027, and the implementing rules are still proposals. If the final rules keep the interest ban tight, the gap between a zero-yield stablecoin and a 4.40% tokenized deposit is a straight sales pitch for banks.
Fifth product in a year
SOFIE is SoFi’s fifth crypto product in under a year. SoFi went back into crypto trading in late 2025 with more than 40 tokens, launched SoFiUSD, and in September moved its whole card program to stablecoin settlement over Mastercard, which we covered here. The pattern is a bank building every layer itself: the deposit, the stablecoin, the exchange and the card settlement.
That matters for the stablecoin incumbents. Circle and Tether can’t pay holders. A bank with a charter, deposit insurance and its own coin can, and it can move customers between the two products with one tap. SoFi is small next to JPMorgan or Citi, but it got a consumer version out first.
What isn’t published yet: the chain SOFIE itself runs on, whether it can leave SoFi’s own wallets, and how the 4.40% moves with policy rates. A deposit rate that tracks the Fed falls when the Fed cuts.
The stablecoin’s advantage was always speed. SoFi just put a yield next to it.