H.R. 2392 — STABLE Act of 2025

This section defines 19 terms for purposes of the Act, including “digital asset” (i.e., any digital representation of value recorded on a cryptographically-secured distributed ledger); “payment stablecoin” (i.e., a digital asset used or designed for payment or settlement, denominated in national currency, redeemable for a fixed monetary value or designed to maintain stable value relative thereto, excluding national currencies, certain securities, deposits, and accounts); “permitted payment stablecoin issuer” (i.e., a subsidiary of an insured depository institution, Federal qualified nonbank issuer, or State qualified issuer approved to issue payment stablecoins); and “primary Federal payment stablecoin regulator” (i.e., for insured depository institutions or subsidiaries other than credit unions, the appropriate Federal banking agency; for insured credit unions or subsidiaries, NCUA; and for Federal qualified nonbank issuers or entities chartered thereby, the Comptroller). It incorporates by reference existing definitions of “Federal credit union,” “insured credit union,” and “State credit union” from the Federal Credit Union Act (12 U.S.C. 1752).

This section prohibits any person other than a permitted payment stablecoin issuer from issuing a payment stablecoin in the United States. (1) after an 18-month period from enactment, it prohibits any custodial intermediary from offering or selling a payment stablecoin in the United States unless issued by a permitted issuer; (2) it provides exceptions for payment stablecoins issued by foreign issuers under a comparable regulatory regime, as determined by the Treasury Secretary (in consultation with federal payment stablecoin regulators) following a request or on the Secretary's initiative, with such determinations published on a public list that may be rescinded (with a 90-day safe harbor for ongoing offers or sales); (3) it subjects violators to civil penalties of up to $100,000 per day; and (4) it requires the Treasury Secretary to issue implementing rules within 12 months of enactment. This section exempts an individual's own lawful transactions in digital assets using self-custody software or hardware wallets.

This section establishes standards and requirements for permitted payment stablecoin issuers, including maintaining reserves backing outstanding payment stablecoins on a 1-to-1 basis using specified high-quality liquid assets (i.e., United States currency or Federal Reserve accounts; demand deposits at insured depository institutions, insured credit unions, or approved foreign depository institutions subject to safety-and-soundness limits; Treasury bills, notes, or bonds with remaining or issued maturity of 93 days or less; qualifying overnight repurchase or reverse repurchase agreements backed by such Treasury securities; or compliant money market funds invested solely in those assets); publicly disclosing the redemption policy and establishing timely redemption procedures; publishing monthly reports on the website detailing total outstanding stablecoins and reserve composition; and prohibiting rehypothecation of reserves except to satisfy repurchase agreement obligations. The section further requires monthly examinations of reports by an independent registered public accounting firm and certifications by the issuer's CEO and CFO attesting to the reports' accuracy (with criminal penalties of up to $1 million fine and 10 years imprisonment for knowing false certifications, or up to $5 million fine and 20 years imprisonment for willful false certifications); clarifies that it does not alter eligibility to hold Federal Reserve accounts; and directs the primary Federal payment stablecoin regulators, in consultation with State regulators, to jointly issue rules establishing tailored capital and liquidity requirements, reserve asset diversification, risk management, and other standards sufficient to ensure issuer operations and redemption capabilities without exceeding necessary levels.

This section establishes an approval process administered by the primary Federal payment stablecoin regulator for applications from insured depository institutions (including state-chartered institutions, with information shared with relevant state supervisors) and nonbank entities to issue payment stablecoins through subsidiaries, based on the subsidiary's ability to meet requirements under section 4. The regulator must notify applicants within 30 days whether an application is complete (and specify additional information if not) and render a decision within 120 days thereafter, deeming the application approved if no timely decision is made; denials are permitted only for unsafe-or-unsound activities (not including issuance on an open, public, decentralized network) and require a detailed written explanation with recommendations within 30 days, an optional hearing request within 30 days of denial (with final determination within 60 days of hearing or 10 days if no hearing requested), and a right to reapply. The regulators must issue joint rules on the application process within 180 days of enactment and annually report to Congress on application processing times, including those pending over 6 months.

This section establishes supervision and enforcement authorities over permitted payment stablecoin issuers (i.e., subsidiaries of insured depository institutions and Federal qualified nonbank payment stablecoin issuers) by the primary Federal payment stablecoin regulator. Under supervision provisions, subsidiaries of insured depository institutions are subject to the same supervision as the parent institution and are deemed financial institutions for purposes of Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act privacy requirements (15 U.S.C. 6801 et seq.); Federal qualified nonbank issuers must submit reports to the Comptroller of the Currency on financial condition, risk monitoring systems, and compliance, and are subject to Comptroller examinations for operations, risks to safety/soundness or financial stability, risk controls, and compliance with this Act, Bank Secrecy Act requirements, and Treasury sanctions laws—with requirements to maximize use of existing information and minimize duplication. Under enforcement provisions, the primary regulator may (1) prohibit issuance of payment stablecoins for material violations of this Act or related conditions/agreements; (2) issue cease-and-desist orders or require corrective action for violations, attempted violations, or related practices; and (3) remove or prohibit institution-affiliated parties for violations of this Act or Bank Secrecy Act provisions (31 U.S.C. ch. 53 subch. II); such actions follow procedures in specified subsections of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act (12 U.S.C. 1818(b), (e)) or Federal Credit Union Act (12 U.S.C. 1786(e), (g)), as applicable.

This section establishes a regulatory framework for State qualified payment stablecoin issuers (i.e., state-chartered entities authorized to issue payment stablecoins, typically dollar-pegged digital assets used for payments). Specifically, it (1) grants the issuer's State payment stablecoin regulator primary supervisory, examination, and enforcement authority; (2) authorizes memoranda of understanding between state regulators and federal banking agencies (i.e., Federal Reserve, Comptroller of the Currency, FDIC, NCUA) for coordinated supervision; (3) requires ongoing information sharing among state regulators and those federal agencies, including initial applications, without waiving applicable privileges; (4) permits state regulators to issue rules and orders enforcing requirements applicable to federally permitted issuers; (5) provides back-up federal enforcement authority—after 48 hours' notice if the state has not acted and a material risk to stablecoin holders or U.S. financial stability exists—for issuers that are subsidiaries of insured depository institutions (by the primary Federal banking agency) or nonbank entities (by the Comptroller), with implementing rules required within 180 days of enactment applying enforcement procedures under section 6(b); (6) deems such issuers financial institutions under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act privacy provisions; and (7) allows issuers to offer payment stablecoins interstate in host states without a local charter or license, subject to home state regulation.

This section establishes customer protection requirements for persons providing custodial or safekeeping services for payment stablecoins issued by permitted payment stablecoin issuers, reserves described in section 4(a)(1)(A), or private keys of such stablecoins. Such persons must (1) be subject to supervision by a primary Federal payment stablecoin regulator, specified primary financial regulatory agencies, or a State bank or credit union supervisor (with information-sharing to the Federal Reserve Board); (2) treat customer property as belonging to the customer and protect it from the custodian's creditors; (3) separately account for and prohibit commingling of customer property (with exceptions for omnibus accounts at depository institutions or credit unions, transaction settlements, and Board-prescribed rules, including cash holdings by insured depository institutions); and (4) submit business and protection process information to the relevant regulator. Customer claims against payment stablecoin issuer reserves have insolvency priority over other claims (except administrative expenses). The requirements do not apply to providers of hardware or software solely for customer self-custody.

This section establishes a rule of construction excluding a digital asset from being construed as a payment stablecoin if it is—(1) redeemable exclusively for other digital assets that are not primarily payment stablecoins or representations of permissible reserves under section 4(a)(1)(A) or similar assets; or (2) primarily used within a system controlled by its issuer as a means of accessing products, services, or loyalty rewards.

This section directs the primary Federal payment stablecoin regulators, in consultation with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), relevant standard-setting organizations, and state governments, to (1) assess compatibility and interoperability standards for permitted payment stablecoin issuers and (2) if necessary, prescribe such standards pursuant to the Administrative Procedure Act (5 U.S.C. 553) and consistent with the National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act of 1995 (Public Law 104-113). This section further directs the Secretary of the Treasury to seek agreements with foreign jurisdictions with comparable payment stablecoin regulatory regimes to facilitate international transactions and interoperability with U.S. dollar-denominated payment stablecoins issued overseas.

This section imposes a 2-year moratorium, beginning on the date of enactment, on issuing endogenously collateralized stablecoins not in existence on that date. An endogenously collateralized stablecoin is a digital asset that an issuer represents as redeemable for a fixed monetary value and that relies solely on another digital asset created or maintained by the same originator to maintain that price.

This section directs the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Federal Reserve, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the National Credit Union Administration, and the Securities and Exchange Commission, to conduct two studies on stablecoins and submit reports with findings to the House Committee on Financial Services and the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs not later than 365 days after enactment of this Act. (1) A study of non-payment stablecoins, including decentralized stablecoins, analyzing their categories (including benefits and risks of technological design features), participants, utilization, reserve compositions, governance structures (including decentralization), public promotion and advertising, and consumer notices and disclosures. (2) A study of the impact of payment stablecoins, analyzing their effects on the cost of domestic and cross-border payments and remittances; their role in providing access to stable currency and mitigating inflation exposure in the Global South; and their potential to reinforce the U.S. dollar as the world's reserve currency, expand demand for U.S. Treasury securities, and reduce U.S. government borrowing costs.

This section directs the primary Federal payment stablecoin regulators to provide a status update on the development of rulemaking under this Act to the Committee on Financial Services of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs of the Senate not later than 6 months after the date of enactment of this Act.

This section provides a rule of construction clarifying that nothing in this Act limits the authority of depository institutions (as defined in 12 U.S.C. 1813), national banks, Federal credit unions, State credit unions, or trust companies to conduct activities permissible under applicable State and Federal law, including (1) accepting deposits and issuing digital assets representing those deposits, (2) using distributed ledgers for books and records or intrabank transfers, and (3) providing custodial services for payment stablecoins, private keys, or reserves backing payment stablecoins. The section directs primary Federal payment stablecoin regulators to review existing regulations and guidance and, if necessary, amend them or issue new ones to confirm that regulated entities may engage in such activities consistent with this Act. The section further prohibits the appropriate Federal banking agency, National Credit Union Administration, and Securities and Exchange Commission from requiring such entities to (1) recognize non-owned custody assets (including payment stablecoin reserves) as balance-sheet liabilities, (2) hold regulatory capital against such assets beyond what is needed to address custody-related operational risks (as determined by the relevant agency or supervisor), or (3) recognize liabilities for non-owned digital asset services exceeding related income-statement expenses.

This section excludes a payment stablecoin issued by a permitted payment stablecoin issuer—as such terms are defined in section 2 of the STABLE Act of 2025—from the definition of "security" in (1) the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, (2) section 2(a)(36) of the Investment Company Act of 1940, (3) the Securities Act of 1933, (4) the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and (5) the Securities Investor Protection Act of 1970. It further exempts such issuers from the definition of investment company under section 3(c) of the Investment Company Act of 1940. (Thus, these stablecoins and issuers are not subject to securities registration, disclosure, investment company restrictions, adviser regulations, or investor protection requirements under these acts.)