Many people respond to my critique of tokenized deposits by arguing "OK fine, not as good as stables, but at least you can transfer them instantly 24/7 on chain."

The implication here is banks couldn't offer the same thing internally. Alas, the 5 biggest US banks spent over $40b on tech last year alone (per Claude).

Do you really think they don't offer instant internal transfers "because they need new tech like a blockchain to do it"?

I assure you that's not the reason. Databases that don't shut down on nights and weekends actually do exist. The technical term for them is databases.

Now ponder the real reason why every single bank doesn't offer real-time payments and didn't roll this out a decade ago.