Bank of America names digital assets chief as stablecoin push widens on Wall Street
Sonali Theisen to lead BofA's global digital assets platform covering stablecoins, custody and settlement, as bank also names AI transformation head.
Bank of America has appointed Sonali Theisen to head its global digital assets platform, formalising a leadership structure that will oversee the bank’s growing work on stablecoins, custody and settlement infrastructure. The move, confirmed by two separate reports, forms part of a wider realignment of the bank’s artificial intelligence and markets units.
Alongside Theisen’s appointment, Bank of America has named Kevin Milsom as head of AI transformation, a role intended to bridge the bank’s crypto ambitions with its broader technology strategy. Taken together, the two appointments signal that Bank of America is treating digital assets not as a peripheral experiment but as a core plank of its institutional infrastructure planning.
Stablecoins and settlement move up the agenda
The remit of the new digital assets platform reportedly spans stablecoins, custody services and settlement — three areas that have become central to how large banks are positioning themselves as tokenisation and blockchain-based payment rails gain traction with corporate treasuries and asset managers. Custody and settlement, in particular, sit close to Bank of America’s existing capital markets and clearing businesses, suggesting the bank intends to integrate digital asset infrastructure with its conventional plumbing rather than ring-fence it as a separate venture.
The appointment lands at a moment when major US and European banks are accelerating their entry into digital asset markets, from custody partnerships to stablecoin issuance consortia. For a bank of Bank of America’s scale, consolidating oversight of stablecoins, custody and settlement under a single platform head suggests an intent to compete directly with rivals that have already built out dedicated crypto units.
Why it matters for UK and European markets
The move comes as European regulators continue to grapple with the implications of bank-issued and bank-adjacent stablecoins for monetary sovereignty and deposit stability. The European Central Bank has repeatedly warned that private stablecoins could siphon deposits away from the traditional banking system, a concern that has fed directly into the push for a digital euro.
A large US bank consolidating its digital asset leadership under one executive is likely to be read in Frankfurt, London and Brussels as further evidence that stablecoin infrastructure is migrating from crypto-native firms towards regulated deposit-taking institutions — precisely the dynamic that has unsettled central bankers on this side of the Atlantic. It also underscores the competitive pressure facing European lenders operating under the Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation, who face a widening gap with US peers on digital asset build-out.
Bank of America has not publicly detailed the scale of resources or timeline attached to the new platform, and neither Theisen nor Milsom has issued a public statement on the specific mandates of their roles. The appointments nonetheless mark a further step in the gradual absorption of digital asset infrastructure into the core operating models of the world’s largest banks.
Read more: Morgan Stanley folds bitcoin, ether and solana into E*TRADE as Wall Street push accelerates
