The US Securities and Trade Fee (SEC) has paved the best way for Wall Road to combine stablecoins into conventional finance.
On February 19, the monetary regulator issued steerage permitting broker-dealers to use a 2% “haircut” to positions in cost stablecoins. A haircut is the share of an asset’s worth {that a} monetary establishment can’t depend towards its deployable capital, performing as a customer-protection buffer in opposition to market danger.
SEC Stablecoin Pivot Pressures Brokers to Construct Crypto Rails
Beforehand, broker-dealers confronted a punitive 100% haircut on stablecoins. If a monetary agency held $1 million in digital {dollars} to facilitate fast on-chain settlement, it needed to lock up that capital.
Yesterday, the Division of Buying and selling and Markets issued an FAQ confirming that employees wouldn’t object if a broker-dealer have been to use a 2% haircut on proprietary positions in cost stablecoins when calculating its web capital.
Hyperlink to the FAQ ➡️ https://t.co/x7rOhtx8fo
— U.S. Securities and Trade Fee (@SECGov) February 20, 2026
That requirement successfully made institutional crypto buying and selling economically radioactive for conventional monetary establishments.
By dropping the capital penalty to 2%, the SEC has granted compliant stablecoins the identical financial therapy as conventional cash market funds.
“This is another terrific step in the right direction from our team in the Division of Trading and Markets to remove barriers and unlock access to on-chain markets,” SEC Chair Paul Atkins stated.
Apparently, this pivot is closely anchored within the newly handed GENIUS Act. This can be a federal regulatory framework for cost stablecoins within the US. It mandates 1:1 reserve backing and strengthens anti-money laundering (AML) compliance.
SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce famous that the brand new laws forces stringent reserve necessities for stablecoin issuers.
In accordance with her, these necessities are even stricter than these utilized to authorities cash market funds, which justify the diminished capital penalty.
“Stablecoins are essential to transacting on blockchain rails. Using stablecoins will make it feasible for broker-dealers to engage in a broader range of business activities relating to tokenized securities and other crypto assets,” Peirce added.
In gentle of this, US-regulated entities similar to Circle’s USDC might see substantial adoption from corporations within the $6 trillion sector.
Because of this, business executives have been fast to have a good time the digital asset business’s shifting fortunes.
Exodus CEO JP Richardson known as it an important crypto win of the yr. He argued it makes tokenized treasuries, equities, and on-chain settlement “economically viable overnight.”
“This puts pressure on every major broker-dealer to build stablecoin infrastructure or fall behind the ones who do. Because their competitors now can and there’s no longer a capital penalty that makes it uneconomical,” he defined.
In the meantime, this approval continues the present SEC’s slew of pro-crypto laws.
Over the previous yr, the SEC has launched a digital asset process drive and initiated “Project Crypto” to modernize its guidelines. These efforts are designed to make the US the crypto capital of the world.
