SoFi launched a tokenized deposit paying 4.40% a day after the rules

SoFi launched SOFIE on 22 October, a tokenised bank deposit where each token stands for one dollar held at SoFi Bank and pays a variable 4.40% with no minimum balance. It converts one for one into SoFiUSD, the bank's dollar stablecoin, and rolls out to SoFi Crypto members through November.

“Each SOFIE token represents one dollar deposited at SoFi Bank and converts one-to-one into SoFiUSD.”

— SoFi, Description of the SOFIE deposit token

Why the date matters

The interesting part is the date. The OCC issued its final stablecoin rules on 21 October, and those rules keep the ban on paying interest or yield for simply holding a payment stablecoin. SoFi shipped a yield-bearing product the next day.

How the two tokens split the job

There is no contradiction, and the structure is the whole answer. The yield sits on SOFIE, which is a bank deposit and carries FDIC cover up to $250,000 per depositor. SoFiUSD, the stablecoin it converts into, pays nothing and carries no FDIC insurance. Two tokens, one of which is allowed to earn and one of which is allowed to move.

We flagged exactly this question when we read the rule yesterday morning: whether the interest ban would become a formality that issuers route around. The first answer arrived within a day, and it does not break the rule. It relocates the yield to the side of the product where paying it is legal.

What the rate is worth

The rate is worth measuring against what the money earns. The US Treasury put the three-month bill at 4.26% on 20 October. SoFi is paying 4.40%, which is 14 basis points more than the short bill yields. A bank can do that because it is funding a balance sheet, not passing through a reserve.

Set that beside the number this matters to. The whole stablecoin category holds $305.59bn, which we counted this week, and at the bill rate the reserves behind it earn roughly $13bn a year that the rules keep away from holders. A deposit token is the legal path by which part of that can reach a user, and the first bank to walk it did so one day after the rulebook closed.

Three things settle how far this goes. Whether other banks copy the two-token split, whether the OCC treats a deposit token that converts instantly into a stablecoin as one product or two, and whether SoFi keeps 4.40% when the bill rate moves. The rate is variable, and that word is doing more work than the four and a half percent next to it.

Informational material, not investment advice. The yield is variable, FDIC cover applies to the deposit token and not to the stablecoin, and rates were read on 22 October 2026.