Federal Reserve releases new rules on reserves and capital stablecoin

The Federal Reserve on Thursday proposed two new regulations that would require issuers of its regulated payment type stablecoin to hold full reserves in eligible assets such as short-term government bonds and establish capital and risk management standards for token . This is the first time the Fed has come out with accompanying rules since President Trump signed the GENIUS Act in July 2025, marking further groundbreaking for a federal regulatory framework for the dollar.

Proposal 1: Full reserve and capital requirements

The first proposal addresses payment type stablecoin issuers that are under the direct supervision of the Federal Reserve Board, and focuses on:

• All reserve assets must be eligible, such as short-term United States sovereign bonds and other high quality liquid assets;
• Establishment of standardized capital requirements to cover credit and operational risks; and,
• the development of risk management standards; and/or the implementation of policies to address these risks.
• To clarify the rules of institutions providing custody services for stablecoin reserve assets.

The goal of these requirements is straightforward: to ensure that each stablecoin has adequate, cash-only asset backing and can be redeemed at face value.

The second proposal: a bank wire transfer application portal

The second proposal designs a specific application process for regulated banks seeking to issue payment form stablecoin . Applicant banks are required to submit business plans and financial information, while the proposal also provides procedures for complaints, hearings and final rulings.

Both proposals are open to public comment after their publication in the Official Gazette, with a deadline of 60 days.

The multi-agency regulatory puzzle

The Fed's action is part of the GENIUS Act, a multi-agency landing that established the first federal regulatory framework for US dollar pegged token .

• The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) is ramping up work on its own stablecoin rule by November to meet a statutory deadline in January;
• The Ministry of Finance has issued a separate rule prohibiting the platform from selling illegal stablecoin products to United States customers.

In other words, stablecoin issuers are now faced with multiple levels of compliance at the same time: reserves, capital, access and sales channels.

What it means for the industry and ordinary users

stablecoin is a fixed reference asset (usually the U.S. dollar) to maintain currency stability blockchain token has become an infrastructure for crypto markets, where money transfers between exchanges, settlement of transactions, cross-border payments and freezing of funds are inseparable from it.

Full reserves and bank-level regulation raise operating costs for issuers, while smaller players may be squeezed out or shift to the banking licensing path; reserve transparency and redemption guarantees reduce the risk of deflation for holders. The Trump administration has recently continued to position USD stablecoin as a tool for perpetuating the dollar's global dominance, with full reserve plus bank-grade regulation at its core supporting this idea.

Follow-up points of interest: how the Fed will respond to the draft after a 60-day comment period, and whether the OCC can finalize its rules by November as scheduled; when Treasury Department noncompliance stablecoin sales ban goes into effect.