Catenaa, Thursday, August 27, 2026-Large US banks could turn blockchain payment technology into a competitive weapon against smaller rivals as finance moves toward round-the-clock settlement, former Signature Bank Chairman Scott Shay has warned.
Shay, who helped found Signature Bank and created its Signet blockchain payments system, made the comments at the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium 2026.
He said major banks increasingly recognize the commercial value of blockchain-based payments and could use their scale to capture business from mid-sized and community institutions that have moved more slowly.
The warning shifts the debate around blockchain banking away from competition between traditional finance and crypto companies.
Instead, Shay sees a potential divide emerging within banking itself, between institutions capable of operating real-time digital payment infrastructure and those still dependent on conventional banking hours and settlement systems.
Shay has experience on both sides of that shift.
At Signature Bank, he developed Signet, a blockchain-based system that allowed commercial customers to transfer funds around the clock.
Shay said Signet was processing about $1 trillion through the system by the end of 2022. It became widely used by digital asset businesses that needed dollar settlement outside normal banking hours.
He also spent four years as vice chairman of the Mid-Size Bank Coalition of America and said he encouraged other banks in that segment to adopt similar technology.
His concern is that slower adoption could leave those institutions vulnerable as larger banks increasingly enter digital asset and blockchain payment markets.
Large banks have several advantages if real-time blockchain settlement becomes a standard corporate banking service. They already control broad customer networks, deep technology budgets and extensive international payment relationships.
Blockchain rails could allow them to add 24-hour settlement without surrendering those relationships to crypto-native payment companies.
That could pressure smaller institutions from both directions: fintech and digital asset companies on one side, and technology-heavy global banks on the other.
Shay has returned to the sector through N3XT, a Wyoming-chartered special purpose depository institution built around blockchain payment infrastructure.
N3XT operates as a full-reserve bank. It says every dollar deposited is backed one-to-one by cash or short-term US Treasurys and customer deposits are not used for lending.
The bank uses a private, permissioned blockchain to process programmable business-to-business payments in US dollars at any time.
Transactions can be configured through smart contracts to settle when predetermined conditions are met.
Unlike many crypto payment systems, N3XT is not built around replacing dollars with stablecoins.
The bank says customers can move bank-held US dollars between approved accounts and recipients while using blockchain technology for execution and settlement.
That distinction gives N3XT a different position in the growing contest between tokenized bank deposits, stablecoins and conventional payment networks.
Stablecoins offer blockchain-native dollar exposure through privately issued tokens. N3XT instead seeks to retain the regulated bank account while giving customers some of the speed and programmability associated with crypto markets.
N3XT launched with customers from crypto, foreign exchange, shipping, logistics and other sectors. Its private blockchain can settle transactions without waiting for outside financial institutions to clear payments, according to its launch announcement.
Shay sees cross-border commerce as one of the strongest applications.
Shipping and logistics businesses often operate continuously across time zones, while traditional bank settlement remains restricted by banking hours, correspondent networks and manual approval processes.
N3XT says its system can automate a payment after conditions such as delivery have been confirmed.
For example, its launch materials describe international transactions where payment can be released immediately after goods reach their destination rather than waiting for conventional banking approval.
Shay said similar demand was already emerging on Signet before Signature Bank failed.
By late 2022, shipping and logistics transactions represented a growing share of activity on the network, even though crypto companies accounted for much of its payment volume.
Trade finance could expand the model further.
Payments could theoretically be programmed to execute after delivery, customs clearance or verification of product quality, reducing some dependence on letters of credit and other intermediary-heavy processes.
Signature Bank was taken over by New York regulators on March 12, 2023, following a rapid deposit run after the failures of Silvergate Bank and Silicon Valley Bank.
The New York Department of Financial Services later reported that Signature lost $18.6 billion in deposits within hours, cutting its deposit base by about 20% in one day.
The regulator said unresolved liquidity-management weaknesses contributed to the collapse and that Signature could not present a credible liquidity plan for reopening.
Shay has disputed the decision to close the bank and maintained that Signature had resources available to meet withdrawals.
Signet nevertheless demonstrated one lesson that has survived Signature: corporate customers can develop strong demand for bank-issued dollars that move continuously rather than only during banking hours.
Shay’s warning is that large banks have now learned the same lesson.
If they build or acquire comparable systems faster than their smaller competitors, blockchain may not merely change how banks settle transactions.
It could also change which banks retain the customers.
