PALM DESERT, Calif.—Credit unions can no longer afford to sit on the sidelines when it comes to stablecoins. That was the blunt message from Becky Reed, COO of Bank Social, who on Wednesday told attendees at the Defense Credit Union Council Annual Conference here they need to act now to integrate distributed ledger technology (DLT) into their payments infrastructure—or risk ceding the future of financial services to outside players.
Reed laid out specific action steps credit unions should begin immediately, starting with educating their leadership and boards on the use cases—not the technology—behind stablecoins, experimenting with digital wallets and transfers to experience the member journey firsthand, and ensuring their digital banking platforms are connected to DLT rails within the next 12 months. Ultimately, she said, success will come down to one thing: offering a seamless payments experience that hides the complexity and wins the loyalty of younger members.
Bank Social, Reed said, is already working with a group of credit unions to launch a shared branching liquidity token network—a modern reinvention of shared branching built on a private distributed ledger that offers real-time, low-cost, programmable transactions among participating institutions.
Reed acknowledged that stablecoins may feel irrelevant to some today.
“My friends don’t use them, my neighbors don’t use them, my mom doesn’t use them… So why should we care?” The answer, she said, lies in the numbers: $4.1 trillion in global stablecoin volume in the last month alone, surpassing Visa’s own network volume. “Visa sees this coming. PayPal sees it. Fiserv, Bank of America—they’re already moving.”
She explained that stablecoins dramatically lower costs and eliminate intermediaries in transactions that settle in seconds and operate 24/7/365—unlike traditional rails such as ACH or card networks. Beyond speed and efficiency, the implications are global and humanitarian: U.S. dollar-backed stablecoins offer financial access to the billions around the world with a phone but no bank account, shielding them from volatile local currencies and regimes that destabilize wealth overnight.
Reed told credit unions the current patchwork of payment systems—ACH, Visa, FedNow—doesn’t need to disappear but must be woven into a seamless digital experience.
“Members don’t care what rail you’re using. They just want the money to move easily. If you get that right, you’ll win their wallet share.”
She emphasized that credit unions are uniquely positioned to lead this evolution due to their values of trust, access, and member ownership. But waiting too long, she warned, will leave them forced to adopt systems built by others.
“We shouldn’t be beholden to the big players. We should be building our own,” Reed said
As a tangible next step, Reed urged credit unions to:
- Get educated—focus on use cases and strategic alignment, not just tech details.
- Use it—download a digital wallet, buy stablecoins, send them to someone, and learn by doing.
- Connect to DLT—ensure the CU’s digital banking provider supports DLT rails, even if that means letting members buy crypto.
- Bank stablecoin issuers—consider holding deposits for stablecoin providers, especially if the CU has a business program or a low-income designation.
"Well-regulated, U.S. dollar-backed stablecoins," Reed concluded, “could be one of the biggest expansions of human rights in the last 50 years. And if we in the credit union movement don’t help lead this, someone else will.”