Programmable controls let banks adopt stablecoins, Coinbax CEO

Peter Glyman, chief executive of Coinbax and a former Jack Henry executive, said banks need transaction-level controls to use stablecoins safely. He argued the main barrier is not interest or basic technology but the ability to defend irreversible on-chain payments to examiners and boards.

Glyman noted that recent regulatory steps give banks permission to act but do not create the operational controls that make final, on-chain payments manageable. He used a simple formulation: “Clarity unlocks a bank’s permission to act. It does not build the thing that makes acting safe.”

Banks have behaved cautiously with other instant payment systems. After FedNow launched, many banks enabled inbound transfers only to avoid sending irreversible payments that could later prove fraudulent or illicit. Glyman framed stablecoins as a similar risk with higher stakes because funds settle with finality and offer limited practical recourse once sent.

Coinbax provides a control layer that sits above issuers, custody providers and core banking systems. The company routes transfers through what it calls the Coinbax Execution Framework: Verify, Fund, Confirm, Settle. The layer adds pre-transaction screening, programmable escrow, windows to hold or reverse payments, and a full audit trail while leaving custody, issuance and existing core relationships in place.

In practice, Coinbax works with banks to select wallets, custody and screening vendors and integrates with core processors rather than replacing them. Glyman said the approach is meant to let banks keep their current vendors while adding controls around each transfer.

Glyman described his core audience as community and regional banks and credit unions and the compliance officers, heads of payments and CEOs who must answer to examiners and boards. He recalled speaking to about 60 bankers at a conference; two had ever used a self-custody wallet to move a stablecoin or other digital asset, highlighting how unfamiliar the tools remain to many potential users. The same control layer is available to fintechs, payment platforms and enterprises that need to move programmable money with safeguards.

Timing for adoption, Glyman said, depends on rules and market infrastructure. The GENIUS Act becomes effective in January 2027, the NCUA has proposed guidance for credit unions, and major core providers are developing stablecoin offerings. He noted implementation typically takes six to nine months and warned that banks delaying until rules take effect risk falling behind. “The timing is not hype, it is arithmetic,” he said.

Coinbax now offers a board-approvable, 90-day pilot that moves a small amount on-chain internally so teams can gain operational experience without exposing large flows. Glyman described the pilot as a way for institutions to test workflows, vendor integrations and examiner conversations before scaling.

Looking ahead, Glyman predicted that within three years most bank accounts will have an associated wallet address and that settlement will increasingly occur wallet-to-wallet. He expects compliance checks to move from edge-based screening at on- and off-ramps to programmable controls embedded in transactions. He also cautioned that banks that do not provide comparable treasury and rails could lose commercial customers to vendors that do.