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Solana founder Anatoly Yakovenko says stablecoins are exposing how costly and slow traditional banking really is.
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Real payment data shows stablecoins beating credit cards on fees and settlement speed.
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Yakovenko warns that higher stablecoin yields threaten the banking profit model.
Banks charge fees, hold your money for months, and pay you almost nothing in return. Solana founder Anatoly Yakovenko says stablecoins are exposing just how broken that system really is.
In a recent interview on Tom Bilyeu’s Impact Theory, Yakovenko shared real numbers from Solana’s own business and laid out what’s coming for the network in 2026.
A $40 Million Test Case
Solana sold 150,000 phones at $500 each. Customers paid with either credit cards or stablecoins.
The credit card payments came with a 2% fee. Worse, Solana had to wait 60 to 90 days to actually receive those funds.
The stablecoin payments, on the other hand, had no fees and funds were available immediately.
“As a merchant, we had to pay a fee on the credit cards about 2%. And we didn’t have to pay that fee on the stablecoin part,” Yakovenko said. “We got the stablecoin funds immediately. On the credit cards, we had to wait 60 to 90 days before we actually got the funds in our bank account.”
That gap in cost and speed added up to several engineering salaries saved on one product launch.
The Banking Spread No One Talks About
Yakovenko also called out how banks profit from depositors without offering much in return.
Banks pay customers around 0.5% interest on deposits. Meanwhile, they earn close to 5% by parking that same money in treasuries. That 10x spread, Yakovenko argued, would collapse in any truly competitive market.
Stablecoin companies can offer 4% yields instead. And that’s exactly why banks are pushing back.
“The difference, the spread… is astronomical. In any kind of contestable market, that would be impossible,” he said.
According to Yakovenko, banking lobbyists are now fighting stablecoin regulation to stop these rewards from reaching everyday users.
What’s Next for Solana in 2026
Yakovenko confirmed that Solana will roll out Alpenglow, a new consensus algorithm built at ETH Zurich. It will replace his original proof-of-history system.
More stablecoins and real-world assets are also expected to launch on the network.
He added that a recent SEC market structure draft could open the door for companies to IPO directly on-chain, a move that would mark a major shift in how public markets operate.