Federal Reserve Proposes 1:1 Reserve and Capital Rules for Stablecoin Issuers Under the GENIUS Act

The Federal Reserve Board released two proposed rulemakings on September 24, 2026 implementing the GENIUS Act (signed July 2025): the first would require payment stablecoin issuers supervised by the Fed to hold reserves equal to 100% of outstanding coins in short-term Treasury bills or other highly liquid assets; the second establishes capital standards, risk-management requirements, and a tailored application process for Fed-supervised banks seeking to issue stablecoins. Both proposals open a public comment period. The GENIUS Act’s compliance deadline has slipped from July 2026 to January 2027, giving the industry roughly three months after the comment period closes to come into compliance.

The Fed’s own independence from presidential at-will removal — the carve-out the Supreme Court created in Trump v. Cook, decided the same day as Trump v. Slaughter stripped that protection from every other independent agency (2026-06-29–scotus-overturns-humphreys-executor-presidential-firing-power) — is the structural basis for the Fed being the body writing these rules at all: every other financial regulator involved in crypto oversight (SEC, CFTC) now operates under commissioners the president can remove at will, while the Fed does not. This proposal is the Fed exercising oversight authority that survived Humphrey’s Executor’s reversal specifically because the Court chose not to extend that reversal to it.