The board of directors of the United States Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) moved toward integrating stablecoins into the traditional financial system. Through the approval of a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM), the agency seeks to implement the standards and requirements for issuers of payment stablecoins established in the GENIUS law, in order to assimilate them legally and operationally in conventional bank deposits. One of the most relevant points of the regulations, approved on Tuesday, April 7, 2026, is the clarification on the treatment of tokenized deposits. The FDIC determined that these instruments, if they meet the statutory definition of “deposit,” They will not be treated differently. under the Federal Deposit Insurance Law than any other type of traditional savings. Additionally, the rule addresses the applicability of pass-through insurance for reserves backing these digital currencies, which provides a layer of legal security to users but imposes a greater regulatory burden on issuers. The regulations also cover insured depository institutions that provide custody and safeguarding services for these digital assets. By raising the barrier to entry, the regulator seeks to ensure that only those entities with a robust and supervised financial structure can operate in the market. The regulatory movement also responds to the need to implement the Act to Guide and Establish National Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS). As BitcoinDynamic has defined, the GENIUS law is the first federal legal body in the United States designed exclusively for “payment stablecoins.” The latter, which are a type of stablecoin specifically designed to function as a means of payment or settlement in everyday transactions, transfers or commerce, maintaining a stable value. GENIUS establishes who can issue these stablecoins and requires that each token be backed 1:1 with auditable assets, forcing the publication of periodic reports on the status of reserves. Under this umbrella, the FDIC is now proposing clear rules on reserve assets, redemption mechanisms, capital levels and risk management standards. This action is the second FDIC rulemaking linked to the GENIUS Act, following a rule issued on December 19, 2025 on application procedures for banks seeking issue its own stablecoins through subsidiaries. It also follows regulations issued by the Commodity and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), which in February of this year reissued a rule stating that payment stablecoins can be used as collateral or margin for futures trades. With this measure, the US government seeks to eliminate the legal ambiguity of digital assets linked to the dollar, although at the cost of much stricter state surveillance. The process is now in a public consultation phase that will last 60 days after its official publication in the Federal Register.
