What does a dollar earn in a savings account, and what does the same dollar earn on-chain?
A dollar in a US savings account and a dollar lent on-chain earn very different rates, and this page plots both against the benchmarks that bound them. As of August 2026 the FDIC national average savings rate is 0.38% against 3.29% on Aave V3 USDC, a gap of +2.91pp, while the US banking system as a whole pays 2.31% for its deposits.
The FDIC national average savings rate is 0.38%. Aave V3 USDC pays 3.29% — a gap of +2.91pp, or about 9× the bank rate. The comparison is more interesting one layer down: the US banking system’s own implied cost of funds is 2.31%, roughly 6× what the average bank pays its retail savers, because that figure includes CDs, brokered deposits and wholesale funding. Meanwhile the Federal Reserve pays banks 3.65% on reserve balances. The distance between what the Fed pays a bank and what the bank pays its depositors is the margin stablecoin issuers structurally compete for.
The yield gap is measured. The deposit-flight thesis — that the gap will cause material migration from banks to stablecoins — is not. This is a description of the incentive landscape, not a forecast, and four risks sit outside the comparison entirely.
US bank deposits up to $250,000 are insured against bank failure. Stablecoin balances are not. The bank yield is a lower-but-insured number and the on-chain yield a higher-but-uninsured one: different risk surfaces, not two points on one curve.
USDC briefly traded at $0.88 during the SVB failure in March 2023. The comparison assumes the stablecoin holds its dollar peg; a 5% break erases more than a year of the current yield advantage.
Aave V3 has a multi-year audit history and a liquidation engine that has been tested in production, but the Kelp DAO bad-debt episode shows the tail is real and unpriced in any APY. See the write-up.
Bank interest is ordinary income. On-chain yield can trigger reporting complexity that reduces the net-of-tax return materially, and the effect differs by jurisdiction. The gap above is pre-tax on both sides.
FDIC consumer deposit rates. Monthly national-average rates published by the FDIC, covering savings, interest checking, money market and CDs. This page charts the savings average as the anchor, since it is the rate most households actually hold.
The National Rate Cap. A monthly regulatory ceiling published alongside the averages: the higher of the national average plus 75 basis points or a spread over the comparable Treasury yield. It restricts what less-than-well-capitalized institutions may offer, so it binds the weakest banks rather than the average one. Live computed it and did not draw it; it is drawn here, because a ceiling on what banks may pay answers the obvious question the gap raises.
The banking system’s implied cost of funds. Computed from FDIC Call Report aggregates as total interest expense over interest-bearing liabilities, annualized. It is higher than the savings average because it blends every funding source a bank uses, and it is quarterly, so it steps rather than glides.
Aave V3 USDC. Base supply APY on Ethereum mainnet, daily, downsampled to the calendar-month median rather than the mean: single-day liquidity spikes reach several times the prevailing rate and a mean carries them into the monthly figure. The median is what ships and what every figure on this page is computed from.
Benchmarks. The 3-month Treasury bill rate and interest on reserve balances, both published by the US Federal Reserve, downsampled to month-end.
Percentage points. The gap, the intermediation margin and the DeFi premium are differences between two rates and are labelled pp. A rate itself is labelled %.
Spans. The lanes begin on different months and each is labelled with its own start in the legend and beneath the chart. No statement on this page describes the on-chain yield environment before February 2023, where that series begins.
Why this page is dated earlier than its neighbors. The FDIC series is monthly and the Call Report aggregates are quarterly, so the most recent reading here is August 2026 while the daily series on the other chart pages run to within a few days of today. That is the release schedule, not stale data.
The level labels. The reading beside the gap is placed by boundaries at +2.0pp, +1.0pp and 0.0pp. Those boundaries are Stablecoin Beat’s own. A label states where the current reading falls in a range we have divided, not what anyone should do about it.
What the comparison cannot settle. Yield is one term in a deposit decision and this page measures only that term. Nothing here is advice, and a wider gap is not evidence that deposits will move.
Updated with each monthly FDIC release. See the methodology for data sources and coverage.
As of August 2026, yes, by a wide margin: 3.29% on Aave V3 USDC against a 0.38% FDIC national average savings rate, a gap of +2.91pp and a ratio of about 9×. Whether that gap is worth taking is a different question — the two numbers carry different risks, set out below the chart.
This page does not advise that and cannot. It compares yields, and yield is one term in the decision: bank deposits carry FDIC insurance up to $250,000, stablecoins carry peg risk and smart-contract risk, and on-chain yield can create tax reporting a savings account does not. A higher number is not a better deal until those are priced.
Because the savings rate is one product and the implied cost is the whole balance sheet. At 2.31%, it blends CDs, brokered deposits, money-market accounts and wholesale funding, all of which pay more than a basic savings account. Banks pay competitive rates where depositors shop on rate, and the national average where they do not.
There is a ceiling, not a floor. The FDIC publishes a monthly National Rate Cap — 4.38% in August 2026 — which restricts what less-than-well-capitalized institutions may offer. It binds the weakest banks rather than the average one, so it explains why rates do not run away upward, not why the average sits where it does.
What the banking system earns for holding a dollar of deposits at the Federal Reserve rather than lending it. The Fed pays interest on reserve balances; the bank pays its depositors less; the difference is a margin available without taking credit risk. It is the economics that stablecoin issuers, whose reserves earn a similar rate, structurally compete for.
The axis opens with the FDIC rates and the T-bill. The other lanes begin later, each labelled with its own start in the legend — the Aave series from February 2023. The earliest part of the chart therefore carries fewer lanes than the most recent, and no statement on this page describes the on-chain yield environment before the Aave series starts.
The FDIC rate series is monthly and the Call Report aggregates behind the implied cost of funds are quarterly, so the most recent reading here lags the daily series on other pages by a month or two. That is the release schedule, not stale data.