Your Loyalty Program Is Leaving Millions on the Table. Stablecoins Are the Fix
Zach Heerwagen
·
CEO
Mar 13, 2026
·
4 min read
Most consumer brands are sitting on hundreds of millions in idle customer cash — and earning almost nothing on it. With interest rates at 4-5% and the GENIUS Act creating the first clear federal framework for stablecoins, there's now a straightforward way to use floats to fund growth via loyalty. Here's how it works, why the window is open right now, and why the first brands to move will define the category.
Last year, Starbucks quietly reported something that should have made every loyalty executive in America stop and reread the line.
$1.87 billion. Sitting in customer app balances and gift cards. Earning almost nothing.
That's not a typo. Starbucks holds nearly two billion dollars of customer money, interest free, as a liability on their balance sheet. Starbucks didn't plan this. They stumbled into one of the most lucrative financial mechanics in consumer retail, wrapped inside a loyalty program most people think of as a way to earn free drinks.
Every Major Brand Is Sitting on Idle Cash
Starbucks isn't a special case. They're the most visible example of a dynamic that exists across virtually every consumer brand with a loyalty app, prepaid balance, or gift card program.
When a customer loads $50 onto your app, that money sits on your balance sheet until they spend it. In accounting terms it's a liability. In financial terms, it's an interest-free loan from your customer to your business. Depending on the size of your digital ecosystem, those loans add up fast.
Airlines have this problem. Retailers have it. Restaurant chains have it. Any brand that has successfully moved customers toward digital-first purchasing has quietly accumulated a float of idle customer dollars. Most are doing exactly what Starbucks does: nothing.
Why Nobody Fixed This Until Now
For most of the past decade, fixing this wasn't worth the effort. Interest rates were near zero from 2010 through 2022, which meant even a perfectly optimized float earned almost nothing. The math didn't justify the complexity.
Then rates moved. Today, safe short-duration instruments — Treasury bills, money market funds — yield 4 to 5 percent annually. On a $1 billion float, that's $45 million a year sitting on the table.
That changes the conversation entirely. But there was still one missing piece.
Enter Stablecoins
Before you close this tab: this isn't about crypto volatility, speculative assets, or anything your legal team needs to panic about.
Stablecoins are digital instruments backed 1:1 by US dollars or Treasury bills. One dollar in, one dollar out — always. The backing assets sit in regulated, audited reserves. Think of it as a Treasury bill with a programmable layer on top.
That programmable layer is what makes stablecoins uniquely suited to this problem — and what separates them from just sweeping your float into a money market fund. With a money market fund, you earn yield. Full stop. With stablecoins, the yield and the rewards logic are part of the same connected system. When a customer hits a spending threshold, a reward fires automatically. No manual reconciliation between a treasury account and a loyalty platform. No engineering work every time you want to change a reward rule. It just runs.
For a brand managing millions of customer interactions, that operational difference is significant. But until recently, the regulatory picture around stablecoins was murky enough that most legal teams wouldn't go near it.
The Regulatory Unlock: The GENIUS Act
In July 2025, the GENIUS Act was signed into law as the first comprehensive federal legislation governing stablecoins in US history. It passed with overwhelming bipartisan support.
In plain English: it creates a clear federal framework for payment stablecoins. Who can issue them. How reserves must be held. What audits are required. What consumer protections apply.
The legal ambiguity that made CFOs and general counsels nervous is gone. Payment stablecoins are now a regulated, auditable financial instrument — not a grey area.
This is the rare moment where a significant financial opportunity and regulatory clarity arrive simultaneously. Those moments don't stay open long.
How It Works — And What It Means for Your Customers
The mechanic is straightforward. When a customer loads money onto your app today, those dollars sit in a bank account earning little to nothing. Under a stablecoin-enabled model, those same dollars are held as regulated, 1:1 backed instruments. The backing assets earn 4 to 5 percent annually. That yield flows back to your brand and directly into your loyalty rewards budget.
Nothing changes for your customers. Their balance shows as dollars. They spend it exactly the same way.
What changes is what you can offer them. A traditional loyalty program has to be conservative because every reward is a margin cost. A yield-funded program flips that dynamic entirely.
Stored Float | Annual Yield at 4.5% |
|---|---|
$200M | $9M |
$1B | $45M |
$2B+ | $90M+ |
That budget funds rewards no traditional points program can match.
Spend $100 this month, earn a $5 cash balance.
Order five times, unlock 5 percent cashback next month.
Refer three friends who each spend $50, earn a $15 bonus.
These mechanics drive real repeat purchasing — and they're fully fundable from yield without touching the P&L.
Because the rewards aren't coming from margin, you can afford to be genuinely generous with your best customers. The power users who drive outsized revenue get outsized rewards. That's a loyalty program that actually helps you achieve key growth objectives.
The Opportunity Is Already On Your Balance Sheet
Starbucks held nearly $2 billion in float and earned almost nothing on it — while a 4 to 5 percent opportunity sat untouched. But any consumer application with meaningful usage has an opportunity to create use cases for digital dollars. The float from dollars held can fund the most competitive loyalty program in your category. It just needs to be put to work.
Snag Solutions builds loyalty infrastructure for consumer brands. We've run 100+ loyalty campaigns over 3.5 years and are partnering with regulated stablecoin issuers to help brands launch yield-funded loyalty programs in a post-GENIUS Act world. If you want to model what this looks like for your business, let's talk.
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