Federal Reserve Unveils Stablecoin Rules on Reserves and Capital

The Federal Reserve on Thursday published two proposals aimed at setting guardrails for payment stablecoin issuers supervised by the Board. The primary proposal would require those issuers to hold reserves entirely in permissible assets — examples cited include short-term Treasury bills and other high-quality, liquid instruments — and would impose standardized capital requirements to cover credit and operational risks. The package also outlines risk-management expectations and rules governing third parties that safekeep the assets backing the tokens. A second proposal would establish a tailored application and review process for Board‑supervised banks that want to issue payment stablecoins. Under that framework, applicants would need to submit a business plan and financial disclosures, and the Fed would set out procedures for appeals, hearings and final decisions related to granting permission to operate as a stablecoin issuer. Both proposals are open for public comment; the Fed said the comment period will close 60 days after the rules are published in the Federal Register. The move is the central bank’s effort to implement elements of the GENIUS Act, the federal statute President Donald Trump signed in July 2025 that created a first-of-its-kind federal regulatory framework for dollar‑pegged tokens. The Fed’s actions join parallel regulatory steps across the U.S. government. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has been advancing its own stablecoin rulemaking with a target in November, and the Treasury Department has proposed measures to block platforms from offering noncompliant stablecoins to U.S. customers. Regulators have emphasized full‑reserve backing and bank‑grade oversight as ways to help ensure tokens maintain their pegs and remain redeemable at face value as use of stablecoins expands into trading, payments and cross‑border transfers.