The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has broadened the criteria for payment stablecoins to include those issued by national trust banks, signaling a significant step towards integrating digital assets into the regulated financial system. This move, executed on February 6, 2026, addresses an oversight in previous guidance and aims to foster innovation and liquidity in the derivatives market.

The CFTC reissued Staff Letter 25-40, initially released in December 2025, to explicitly include national trust banks as eligible issuers of payment stablecoins. National trust banks, which operate under federal charters and are subject to strict oversight, offer services like custodial services and asset management, but typically do not provide retail banking services. The initial guidance unintentionally excluded these federally chartered institutions, creating a two-tiered system where only stablecoins issued by state-regulated money transmitters or trust companies qualified as acceptable collateral. The correction ensures that stablecoins from national trust banks now have parity with assets from state-regulated issuers like Circle and Paxos.

This revision aligns with the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act, signed into law in July 2025, which provides a comprehensive regulatory framework for dollar-pegged stablecoins. The GENIUS Act was the first major piece of digital assets legislation passed by Congress. The Act defines and regulates the issuance of payment stablecoins and establishes reserve and redemption requirements for payment stablecoins. Under the law, payment stablecoins may be issued only by authorized subsidiaries of banks or by entities licensed to do so by the OCC. Issuers of payment stablecoins are subject to a bank-like regulatory regime, including safety and soundness requirements and anti-money laundering (AML) compliance. CFTC Chairman Mike Selig emphasized that through the GENIUS Act and the CFTC's new framework, the United States has become a global leader in stablecoin innovation.

The inclusion of national trust banks is expected to inject new liquidity into the margin system. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) approved five national trust bank charters for cryptocurrency-focused firms in December 2025, enabling these institutions to issue tokens that meet the CFTC's criteria. Futures commission merchants (FCMs) can now accept these stablecoins as customer margin collateral, provided all existing customer protection safeguards are met.

This update operates under a "no-action" framework, providing temporary guidance while the CFTC considers formal rulemaking. It allows FCMs to accept stablecoins from national trust banks during a three-month pilot phase, with collateral haircuts determined by the firms themselves. The CFTC is running a pilot program that allows Bitcoin, Ethereum, and qualifying stablecoins as collateral as a regulatory sandbox, and will consider making the framework permanent depending on operational resilience and risk-management performance. This move is seen as a critical course correction for the clearing industry, which has been working to integrate digital assets into traditional settlement workflows. By widening the eligible collateral pool, the CFTC removes a structural friction that had sidelined federally chartered institutions from participating in the market for tokenized derivatives collateral.

The CFTC's action has been welcomed by industry participants. Ripple's CEO, Brad Garlinghouse, described the approval as a "massive step forward" for their RLUSD stablecoin, highlighting its impact on RLUSD's market cap, which has reached $1.5 billion. The new guidelines may also facilitate the integration of RLUSD's reserves into systems like FedWire, bridging financial institutions and cryptocurrencies.