The Federal Reserve plans to require banks to back each $1 stablecoin with at least $1 in reserves

The Federal Reserve Board (Fed) plans to establish rules for payment stablecoins issued by banks, requiring that each $1 token be backed by at least $1 in approved reserve assets and generally completed customer redemptions within two business days. If the issuer consistently falls below the minimum capital requirements, they may be required to liquidate reserve assets and redeem all tokens.

Reserve assets may include U.S. dollars, Federal Reserve bank balances, certain bank deposits, U.S. Treasury securities with a remaining maturity of no more than 93 days, qualified repurchase agreements, and qualified investment funds, with some tokenized forms of assets potentially included. If reserves are insufficient, the issuer must notify the Fed and restore adequate backing; otherwise, they must liquidate reserves and redeem tokens pegged to the dollar. The Fed intends to require issuers to hold standardized capital against operational and certain credit risks, with a capital charge of 2% for the first $20 billion of issued stablecoin and 1% for amounts exceeding $50 billion.

Another proposal allows state member banks that hold deposits to apply to establish subsidiaries for issuing payment stablecoins. The "GENIUS Act" stipulates that once the application is substantively complete, the Fed must make a decision within 120 days. Fed Governor Michael Barr stated that stablecoins should be reliably and promptly redeemable at par in various market conditions and when issuers encounter problems, and he called for the final rules to clarify universal redemption rights. He also expressed concern about the threshold for triggering regulatory or enforcement actions for anti-money laundering deficiencies needing to reach "significant or systemic" levels. The public comment period will be 60 days following the publication in the Federal Register.