I've been following this topic closely, and honestly, the story of stablecoins and banks is developing wildly.

The story begins with a guy named Tony McLooglin who spent 20 years at Citigroup, reaching a senior position in the payments and commercial solutions division. The important thing is that he was one of the main designers of the RLN network, a very risky idea for settling obligations between banks. Even the Bank for International Settlements acknowledged it as an inspiration for their projects. Very big stuff.

But then he realized an important thing: private blockchains won't solve the problem. Why? Because there's an "initial operational issue"—all banks expect each other to be the first to join, and no one wants to take the first step. Public blockchains have already solved this problem—they have users, liquidity, and developers.

The 2024 U.S. presidential election was a turning point. Note that legislation regulating stablecoins is inevitable, which means banks will be able to operate on public blockchains. And indeed, the GENIUS law, which came into effect in July 2025, proved he was right. He decided to leave Citigroup and founded Ubyx in March 2025.

The interesting part: banks are afraid that stablecoins will drain deposits. But McLooglin has a completely different perspective. He says: these are not new crypto assets; they are actually a modern version of a very old commercial law tool—negotiable instruments.

He compares them to American Express traveler's checks from 1891. People bought checks from the company for a certain amount and could cash them anywhere in the world. No one rejected them because the settlement network guaranteed the merchant would receive the money. The need disappeared when cards became widespread, but the same idea exists in stablecoins.

The current problem: stablecoins exist but there is no unified settlement network. Each issuer builds its own network from scratch. Ubyx is trying to fill this gap with a simple collection model: the customer deposits a stablecoin, the bank sends it, Ubyx delivers it to the issuer, the issuer releases the fiat currency from existing reserves, and the money goes back to the bank and the customer.

McLooglin's numbers are crazy: if the stablecoin market reaches a trillion dollars, and 0.5% of it is redeemed daily, the annual redemption volume is about 1.8 trillion. If banks charge a 100 basis point fee plus a 100 basis point cross-border spread, the potential annual revenue could reach $36 billion. This is from the perspective of non-American banks—each dollar converted into a local currency generates pure profit.

Investors who joined in say the same thing. Ubyx completed a $10 million funding round in June 2025 led by Galaxy Ventures. The group includes: Founders Fund, Coinbase Ventures, VanEck, LayerZero. Even Paxos and Monerium invested while also being network issuers. McLooglin compared the structure to Visa and Mastercard ownership in the early days—banks using the network are the same ones owning it.

Even Barclays, the second-largest British bank, made a strategic investment in January 2026. They said "interoperability is key." Afterwards, AB Xelerate from the Arab Bank Group did the same. This means free-market capital from Silicon Valley, European banks, and Middle Eastern financial infrastructure are all heading in the same direction.

There are some potential issues: Circle itself launched Circle Payments in mid-2025, a closed network for USDC. The question is: will the market be a single-source network or a multi-source system? McLooglin says history leans toward diversity, but Circle has the advantage of size and controlling market share.

Also, the dispute over yields hasn't been resolved yet. If they ban yields, banks will be more relaxed but the scope of applications decreases. If they allow yields, the stablecoin market could explode and compete with savings accounts and bonds.

Ubyx commits to using an open-source rulebook and governance via DAO, but this model has never been tested before for a regulated financial infrastructure.

Summary: McLooglin shifted from defending the paper-based system, to building private chains, to realizing that public chains are the solution. And the key phrase is: "Banks can treat stablecoins like they treat checks." If someone with authority says this, every bank and fintech company worldwide will immediately know what to do. Ubyx bets that this will happen soon.