SoFi launched SoFi Earn (SOFIE) on 22 October, a tokenised bank deposit that pays 4.40% APY and carries FDIC protection, in what the company calls the first-ever bank deposit token for its crypto platform.
Announced in a post on X, each SOFIE token represents $1 held on deposit at SoFi Bank, a nationally chartered U.S. bank. The deposit is FDIC-insured up to applicable limits, and when members want to deploy the money on-chain they can convert SOFIE one-to-one into SoFiUSD, the bank’s stablecoin.
A home for idle stablecoin money
SoFi cited Federal Reserve research estimating that roughly $64 billion, about 21% of the stablecoin market, sits idle in forgotten or inactive wallets. Chief executive Anthony Noto said “Too much money in the digital asset ecosystem is sitting idle” , and described the product as combining “the earning power and protections of a bank deposit with the speed and utility of digital assets.” SoFi frames SOFIE as a home for exactly those funds: buy and hold the token to earn interest and keep deposit protection. It is the company’s fifth crypto product in under a year, following SoFiUSD, which the bank launched on Ethereum and Solana and now uses to settle its card programme over Mastercard’s network.
Where the yield challenge lands
The competitive point is plain for anyone holding stablecoins. Ordinary stablecoins sit outside the U.S. banking system, pay no interest and receive no FDIC backing. Circle’s USDC, a stablecoin it issues alongside Coinbase, is reportedly backed one-to-one by dollars or U.S. Treasuries but earns holders nothing. SOFIE pays 4.40% APY, a promotional rate, with deposit insurance behind it, putting a bank directly into competition with stablecoin issuers on the yield dimension.
The move also lands on favourable regulatory ground. It follows a BIS paper arguing banks can slow stablecoin growth by paying savers more, and the CFTC’s move to allow tokenized customer funds and blockchain recordkeeping.
SoFi has not stated which blockchain SOFIE is issued on, or when consumer access opens beyond the announcement.
