The US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation has formally introduced its proposed approach to regulating stablecoin issuers, as required by the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins Act. The proposal, which aligns with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's February proposal, will be open for public comment for 60 days. The FDIC's role is to regulate US depository institutions that issue stablecoins from their subsidiaries, and the proposal outlines capital, liquidity, and custody standards for these firms. However, the details will not be finalized until the agency reviews input and writes the final language.
As expected, stablecoins will not be eligible for deposit insurance, and issuers will not be able to offer interest or yield on their tokens simply for holding or using a payment stablecoin. The proposal also suggests that issuers will need to maintain capital to manage business risk, as well as an operational backstop based on previous year's operating expenses. The agency has addressed the applicability of pass-through insurance to deposits held as reserves backing payment stablecoins, proposing that tokenized deposits be treated the same as other deposits. While regulators work to implement the GENIUS Act, some details may be overhauled by the Senate's Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, which is still being debated.