Crypto
The Fed Just Opened the Front Door for Bank Issued Stablecoins, With 60 Days for Public Comment
The Federal Reserve just moved from watching the stablecoin market to writing its rulebook. On Thursday the Fed Board asked for public comment on two proposals that would set the operating standards for supervised payment stablecoin issuers under the GENIUS Act, the federal stablecoin law signed July 18, 2025.
The first proposal sets the financial backbone. Issuers under Fed supervision would hold reserves in approved assets, short term Treasury bills and other high quality liquid holdings, enough to back every token in circulation. It also standardizes capital requirements to cover credit and operational contingencies and lays out operating standards for running a payment stablecoin business.
The second proposal is the bigger unlock, and it is aimed squarely at banks. It creates a tailored application process for Fed supervised banks that want to issue their own payment stablecoins, spelling out what business plans and financial information applicants must submit, plus procedures for appeals, hearings, and final determinations. In plain terms, the Fed is building a front door with the paperwork printed, the line marked, and a process for challenging a rejection.
The comment window runs 60 days from publication in the Federal Register, and the feedback that lands in that window will shape the final rules in a meaningful way. The timing matters because the clock has been loud. Agencies missed the GENIUS Act's July 2026 implementation deadline, and full enforcement is penciled in for January 18, 2027. The Fed's proposals are the clearest sign yet that the long stalled machinery is finally moving, and that American digital dollar policy is entering its decisive phase.
Here is the angle. For years the American stablecoin conversation centered on whether banks would be allowed to participate at all. This proposal answers the next question, the question of how. A defined application path, published standards, and an appeals process turn stablecoin issuance from a regulatory gray zone into a supervised business line, the same way banking has always absorbed new products. Banks want in, and the Fed knows it.
This is the sound of dollar stablecoins growing up, and it matters for anyone holding digital dollars. Clear reserve rules and supervised issuers make the tokens sitting in wallets and DeFi protocols easier to trust, and a bank issued dollar on a blockchain becomes a matter of when rather than if. The comment period is also genuinely open, which means builders, users, and advocates can put their fingerprints on the final shape of American digital dollars.
Quick answers
What is this story about?
The Federal Reserve just moved from watching the stablecoin market to writing its rulebook. On Thursday the Fed Board asked for public comment on two proposals that would set the operating standards for supervised payment stablecoin issuers under the GENIUS Act, the federal stablecoin law signed July 18, 2025.
Why does this story matter?
This is the sound of dollar stablecoins growing up, and it matters for anyone holding digital dollars. Clear reserve rules and supervised issuers make the tokens sitting in wallets and DeFi protocols easier to trust, and a bank issued dollar on a blockchain becomes a matter of when rather than if. The comment period is also genuinely open, which means builders, users, and advocates can put their fingerprints on the final shape of American digital dollars.
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