SoFi Becomes First National Bank to Settle Cards in Stablecoin — Entire $25B Debit & Credit Program Migrates to SoFiUSD on Mastercard's Network

SoFi Technologies (NASDAQ: SOFI) and Mastercard (NYSE: MA) announced Sept. 22 that stablecoin settlement is now live across SoFi Bank, N.A.'s debit and credit card program, bringing SoFiUSD settlement to Mastercard's global payments network roughly six months after the companies' March partnership announcement. 'Transactions are live on the blockchain today,' the release states. SoFi Bank is migrating its entire $25 billion card program to stablecoin settlement — expected to process more than $25 billion in annualized volume — using SoFiUSD (SOFID), the first stablecoin issued by a nationally chartered bank.

SoFiUSD is issued by SoFi Bank, N.A., an OCC-regulated national bank, redeemable 1:1 for U.S. dollars with reserves consisting primarily of cash. The structure keeps merchants in familiar rails: 'Merchants do not need to hold stablecoins, build new infrastructure or change how they operate,' SoFi CEO Anthony Noto said. 'Through SoFi's Big Business Banking platform, any merchant can receive settlement funds instantly in a SoFi Bank account and withdraw to cash around the clock and at zero cost.' Mastercard's Sherri Haymond, Global Head of Digital Commercialization, framed the shift explicitly: 'With SoFi, we're moving beyond exploration to implementation, bringing regulated stablecoin settlement into a live production environment.'

The launch is not a closed loop: SoFi says it is in active discussions with large U.S. merchants — from multinational retailers to technology service platforms — about stablecoin-based settlement, and the companies will explore cross-border payments and remittances on Mastercard's network.

Why it matters: this is the first time a nationally chartered bank has moved a full, at-scale consumer card program onto blockchain settlement — not a pilot, not a test bed, not an offshore arrangement. It lands in a week when the Federal Reserve proposed the first GENIUS Act rules for bank stablecoin issuers (Sep 24) and the CFTC updated tokenized-asset guidance: the regulatory scaffolding and the production rails are arriving together. Payments trade press (FF News, Electronic Payments International, PYMNTS) drove a fresh analysis wave today, three days after the announcement.