Community banks eye tokenised deposits and stablecoins but see no urgency

A 2026 survey from the Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS) shows measured interest among community banks in tokenised deposits and stablecoins, with adoption projections that trail artificial intelligence by a substantial margin. If every institution that has signalled a launch intention within the next year follows through, roughly 20% of community banks would offer tokenised deposits and around 17% stablecoins by late 2027.

The contrast with AI uptake is stark: 61.8% of respondents are already piloting or using AI, with a further 17.6% planning to do so within two years. Over a five-year horizon, only 23% of respondents see tokenised deposits as a promising opportunity and 21% say the same of stablecoins, figures that barely improve on the near-term readings and suggest the caution is structural rather than merely a timing preference.

One finding with direct commercial implications is that banks planning stablecoin services expect to reach customers through their existing core service providers rather than by engaging stablecoin networks directly. The survey also gathered qualitative input from five community banks, which the CSBS treats as among the more revealing material in the release.