ActiveInvestorMag.comNews Without Noise.
Financial Regulation

Fed proposes reserve and capital rules that would push stablecoins into Treasury bills

The Board opened comment on two GENIUS Act proposals requiring full backing in permissible liquid assets and setting capital charges for the issuers it supervises.

Assembled by Claude from 8 sources at 8 outlets · Friday, September 25, 2026, Morning edition, 10:26 AM EDT · no human byline

Disclosure. This item was assembled by an AI from the RSS excerpts of the outlets tagged inline. No human wrote or checked it before publication. Feed selection and categories are editorial choices by Teresa Lo. Nothing here is investment advice.

What happened

The Federal Reserve Board requested public comment on two proposals establishing a regulatory framework for Board-supervised payment stablecoin issuers under the GENIUS Act federalreserve.gov. The Fed proposed new stablecoin rules covering Treasury bills and imposing capital requirements, and outlining the stablecoin-related activities it would permit reuters.com. Reserves would have to be held in Treasury bills and other high-quality, liquid assets, and the proposal would also establish further standards bloomberg.com.

The detail sets both the asset mix and the redemption clock. One proposal would require full backing by liquid reserve assets on a one-to-one basis, with a 93-Day limit on Treasury holdings financefeeds.com. The Fed also proposed tiered capital charges and a two-day redemption standard for issuers finance.biggo.com. Fed Governor Michael Barr supported the proposal but said further work would be required for stablecoins to become reliable payment instruments tradingview.com.

Why it matters to investors

The mechanical effect is a new, rule-bound bid at the front of the curve. The flow of stablecoin reserves into Treasury bills may drive demand for short-term US paper cryptopolitan.com, and the framework could push regulated stablecoin growth deeper into the Treasury market while making assets such as bitcoin, gold and longer-duration securities less usable as reserves financefeeds.com.

Not everyone is satisfied that the framework closes the risk. Better Markets argued the proposal leaves significant financial stability risks unaddressed, warning that banks would feel pressure to rescue affiliated stablecoin issuers to protect their reputations and customer relationships bettermarkets.org. Barr flagged an anti-money-laundering enforcement gap alongside his support cryptopolitan.com, and said further work was needed before stablecoins could serve as reliable payment instruments tradingview.com. The proposals also cover treasury management and capital market tokenisation cryptopolitan.com.

What to watch

The comment period is the first stage, since both proposals are out for public input rather than final federalreserve.govreuters.com. The reserve-eligibility list and the maturity limit are the provisions with the most direct market consequence financefeeds.com.

Legislation is the wider uncertainty. The stablecoin framework is advancing while Washington's broader crypto legislation remains stalled, after the Senate failed to advance the CLARITY Act finance.biggo.com. That leaves rulemaking under the GENIUS Act as the operative regime federalreserve.gov. Watch too whether the capital charges and the two-day redemption standard survive comment in their proposed form finance.biggo.com, and whether the concerns about bank support for affiliated issuers are addressed in the final text bettermarkets.org.

Sources

  1. reuters.com: US Federal Reserve proposes new stablecoin rules - Reuters (2026-09-24)
  2. bloomberg.com: Fed Unveils More Stablecoin Plans As Regulators Embrace Crypto - Bloomberg (2026-09-24)
  3. federalreserve.gov: Federal Reserve Board requests public comment on two proposals related to establishing a regulatory framework for Board-supervised payment stablecoin issuers under the GENIUS Act (2026-09-24)
  4. financefeeds.com: Fed Stablecoin Rule: 1:1 Backing, 93-Day Treasury Limit - FinanceFeeds (2026-09-24)
  5. finance.biggo.com: Fed Proposes Tiered Capital Charges and Two-Day Redemption Standard for Stablecoin Issuers (2026-09-24)
  6. tradingview.com: Fed proposes new capital, redemption rules for stablecoin issuers - TradingView (2026-09-24)
  7. bettermarkets.org: Fed Stablecoin Proposal Leaves Significant Financial Stability Risks Unaddressed (2026-09-24)
  8. cryptopolitan.com: Fed proposes bank-style stablecoin rules, but Barr flags an AML enforcement gap (2026-09-25)