Spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded their strongest daily inflows since February on Monday despite ongoing geopolitical tensions.
Crypto markets retreated on Tuesday as President Donald Trump’s self-imposed deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz drew closer, dampening risk appetite across global markets.
Bitcoin is trading at $69,200, according to CoinGecko, recovering from an intraday dip below $68,000 but still well off Monday’s brief push above $70,000. Ethereum is changing hands at $2,112, while Solana trades at $82. XRP fell 1.6% to $1.32.
BTC Chart
The total cryptocurrency market capitalization stands at approximately $2.45 trillion, down less than 1% in the past 24 hours.
Among the top 100 tokens by market cap, Rain (RAIN) led gainers with a 9.8% rise, followed by Zcash (ZEC), up 8% to $276. On the downside, Algorand (ALGO) dropped 7%, and Avalanche (AVAX) fell 6.2% to $8.75.
Iran Deadline Dominates Sentiment
Trump escalated his rhetoric early Tuesday, posting on Truth Social that “a whole civilization will die tonight” if Iran fails to comply with demands to reopen the critical shipping lane that handles roughly one-fifth of global oil and gas flows. Vice President J.D. Vance said the military objectives of the war in Iran have been achieved, but the administration’s ceasefire demands remain unmet.
U.S. equities ended the day mostly unchanged, while West Texas Intermediate crude held above $110 per barrel as fears of continued supply disruption weighed on energy markets.
Traders widely expect the Federal Reserve to hold rates steady at its April meeting, reflecting the view that wartime inflation will keep the central bank sidelined.
ETF Inflows Defy Risk-Off Mood
Despite the geopolitical turmoil, spot Bitcoin ETFs posted $471 million in net inflows on Monday, the largest single-day intake since Feb. 25, according to SoSoValue.
The figure sits well below January’s peak flow regime, when multiple trading days topped $700 million, but marks a notable acceleration after BTC and ETH ETFs reversed a multi-week outflow streak in late February. March saw $1.32 billion in total net inflows, coinciding with Bitcoin’s first green monthly candle in six months.
Liquidations and Derivatives
Bitcoin alone accounted for roughly $92 million in liquidations over the past 24 hours, according to CoinGlass. Liquidations were almost equally shared between long and short positions amid choppy trading.
The Crypto Fear & Greed Index sits at 11, deep in extreme-fear territory and near the lowest sustained readings since the Terra collapse in mid-2022.
Looking Ahead
The immediate catalyst for market direction is the 8 PM ET Iran deadline. Trump has repeatedly extended similar ultimatums in recent weeks, blunting their market impact, but the scale of rhetoric suggests tonight could break the pattern in either direction.
Bitcoin has been range-bound between $62,000 and $75,000 since early February. A resolution in the Strait of Hormuz standoff would likely trigger a relief rally across risk assets.
After topping $70,000 on Monday, bitcoin BTC$69,132.12 has pulled back to the $68,000 area as time draws near for President Trump’s Tuesday deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” said Trump in a Tuesday morning Truth Social Post. “I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will,” he continued. “We will find out tonight, one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the world.”
Alongside declines in crypto, U.S. stock index futures are poised to open lower, led by the Nasdaq 100’s 0.65% decline. WTI crude oil is higher by 1.7% to $114.22 per barrel.
Tempering declines across markets were comments from vice president J.D. Vance, who — while reiterating the 8 pm ET deadline — said the military objectives of the Iran war have been completed.
C-suite executives report they’re creating a two-tiered workforce: 92% are actively cultivating a new class of “AI elite” employees; 75% say their company’s AI strategy is “more for show” than real guidance
WRITER, the leading AI agent platform for the enterprise, today announced the release of its second annual AI survey: AI Adoption in the Enterprise. The study, conducted in partnership with independent research firm Workplace Intelligence, surveyed 2,400 global employees and C-suite leaders using AI at work.
The report examines the very real obstacles companies continue to face as they implement generative and agentic AI. In fact, 79% of executives acknowledge struggling with issues like lagging ROI, strategy gaps, and internal power struggles. The pressure is felt most acutely at the top, with 38% of CEOs reporting a high or crippling amount of stress around AI strategy. And it’s not just their companies on the line — 64% of CEOs fear they could lose their job if they fail to lead their organization through the AI transition.
To get ahead in the AI race, 92% of the C-suite admit they’re actively cultivating a new class of “AI elite” employees. Most leaders (87%) report that these AI super-users are at least 5X more productive than employees who aren’t embracing AI. But the stakes are high for those who lag behind — 77% of executives warn that employees who refuse to become AI-proficient won’t be considered for promotions or leadership roles, and 60% plan to lay off employees who can’t or won’t use AI.
The top AI adoption challenges facing the C-suite:
Lagging ROI: Nearly allexecutives (97%) say AI has been beneficial, and 75% believe AI agents will be part of their company’s C-suite within the next 5 years. Still, few leaders say they’ve seen significant ROI from generative AI (29%) or AI agents (23%), and nearly half (48%) feel that AI adoption at their company has been a massive disappointment.
Strategy gaps: 69% of the C-suite report that their company is doing layoffs due to AI, but 39% admit they don’t have a formal strategy in place to drive revenue from AI tools. Even where strategies do exist, quality is lacking — 75% of executives say their company’s AI strategy is more for show than for actual internal guidance.
Internal tensions: As pressure from boards intensifies, internal friction is growing. 54% of the C-suite say adopting AI is tearing their company apart, and 56% say this has created power struggles and disruption at their organization — double digit increases from 2025. 78% of executives say AI has created tension between IT and other lines of business, with 55% reporting that AI use is a chaotic free-for-all at their company.
Organizational redesign: 95% of executives say roles, titles, and team structures are changing at their company because of AI, and 90% say the rise of AI super-users will require them to completely rethink how they evaluate and reward performance. Managers’ roles are also under scrutiny: 80% of Gen Z trust AI more than their manager, for example for tasks like providing performance feedback and career advice.
Employee sabotage: Instead of embracing AI, some workers are pushing back. In fact, 29% of employees — including 44% of Gen Z — admit to sabotaging their company’s AI strategy, for example by entering company information into public tools, using unapproved tools, or refusing to use AI. Executives recognize the danger: 76% say employee sabotage poses a serious threat to their company’s future.
Security and governance risks: 67% of executives believe their company has suffered a data leak or security breach because of an employee using an unapproved AI tool. More than one-third (35%) concede they aren’t very confident they could “pull the plug” on a rogue AI agent if it started causing financial or reputational damage to their company.
“Layoffs are not a viable AI strategy,” said May Habib, CEO & Co-Founder, WRITER. “I’m on the front lines with WRITER’s Fortune 500 customers, and the leaders who are putting in the work to radically redesign operations with human-agent collaboration at the center are the ones compounding their advantage in ways competitors can’t replicate. AI transformation is ultimately about people, and the future belongs to the companies putting agent-building power directly into the hands of people closest to the work.”
The report describes how organizations can address the structural, cultural, and governance gaps slowing progress. That means tying AI initiatives to measurable business outcomes, empowering employees to innovate without creating IT bottlenecks, and focusing investment on opportunity and growth — not just efficiency and cost-cutting. It also requires documented roadmaps, enterprise-grade governance for AI agents, and change leadership that works both top-down and bottom-up.
“This is a defining moment in AI adoption, and the gap between super-users and laggards is widening fast,” said Dan Schawbel, Managing Partner, Workplace Intelligence. “We’re already seeing this play out — the super-users we surveyed were around 3X more likely to have received both a promotion and pay raise in the past year, compared to employees who have been slow to adopt these tools. Top AI users are also saving nearly 9 hours per week using AI — 4.5X more than the 2 hours a week reported by AI laggards.”
“The top AI users are gaining huge amounts of leverage inside organizations. To turn these individual productivity gains into real business ROI, copilots aren’t enough. Companies need enterprise AI platforms that support deeper structural change,” said Mina Alghaband, Chief Customer Officer, WRITER. “At WRITER, we focus on empowering entire departments to expand their capacity with agents, with full IT supervision and control from day one.”
The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center released its 2025 annual report earlier today, revealing that cryptocurrency-related fraud drained more than $11.3 billion from American victims last year — a figure that now accounts for more than half of all reported cybercrime losses nationwide.
The report, covering data gathered from the FBI’s IC3 platform, logged a total of 1,008,597 complaints with $20.877 billion in combined losses — a 26% jump from 2024 .
Within that staggering total, the cryptocurrency descriptor alone generated 181,565 complaints and $11.366 billion in losses, making digital assets the single most loss-heavy category tracked in the report.
For context, cryptocurrency fraud losses sat at roughly $27 million in 2017. By 2025, that number had multiplied more than 400 times .
Crypto investment scams are the top threat
At the center of the crisis is cryptocurrency investment fraud — a breed of long-con scheme the FBI describes as using “psychological manipulation, the appearance of legitimacy, and exploitation of cryptocurrencies to deceive victims into investing large sums of money”.
These scams generated $7.2 billion in reported losses in 2025, making them the single greatest source of financial harm to Americans for the year .
The mechanics follow a recognizable pattern. Criminals initiate contact through text messages, social media platforms, dating apps, or digital advertisements. Victims are drawn into what appear to be exclusive investment groups led by knowledgeable insiders, then directed to send cryptocurrency to fraudulent platforms that display fabricated profits and offer loans to encourage deeper investment.
When victims attempt withdrawals, scammers demand taxes and fees before vanishing with all deposited funds.
The FBI identifies the source of these operations as organized criminal enterprises in Southeast Asia — particularly in Cambodia, Laos, and Burma — that use victims of human trafficking as forced labor to operate the scam centers .
Crypto as a payment tool for fraud
The report does not limit cryptocurrency’s role to investment scams. Across the board, digital assets were the dominant payment method in fraud, with cryptocurrency used in 72% of investment fraud transactions, 43% of tech support scam transactions, and 40% of government impersonation scheme payments. The data makes clear that scammers across multiple crime categories have standardized on crypto as the preferred method for extracting and moving money.
Investment fraud as a broader crime category reached $8.648 billion in losses, with the cryptocurrency component accounting for the largest share. Tech support scams that involved digital assets produced $1.226 billion in losses on their own.
Seniors bear the heaviest burden
Among all demographic groups, Americans aged 60 and older were hit the hardest. This group filed 44,555 cryptocurrency-related complaints and suffered $4.43 billion in losses, more than any other age bracket . Within the crypto investment fraud subcategory, the 60-and-older group reported $2.76 billion in losses, compared with $1.38 billion for those aged 50 to 59.
Crypto ATM and kiosk scams — a subset where criminals direct victims to physical machines using QR codes — produced 13,460 complaints and $389 million in losses, a 58% loss increase from 2024.
Seniors filed 6,188 of those complaints and absorbed $257.5 million of those losses, or roughly 66% of the total .
Recovery scams, in which fraudsters target prior crypto victims with promises to reclaim lost funds, generated another 10,516 complaints and $1.4 billion in losses . The 60-plus group again led with $540.5 million in recovery scam losses alone.
The Bureau has not been passive. Operation Level Up, launched in January 2024, uses IC3 complaint data to identify and notify victims of cryptocurrency investment fraud while they are still being scammed . In 2025 alone, the operation notified 3,780 victims and saved an estimated $225.8 million — 78% of those notified had no idea they were targets of a scam . In one case, agents stopped a victim from liquidating $750,000 from his 401(k) to send to fraudsters; in another, a woman was prevented from selling her home to fund a $500,000 “investment.”
A separate initiative — the U.S. Attorney’s Office District of Columbia Scam Center Strike Force — combines the DOJ, FBI, Secret Service, State Department, and Treasury’s OFAC to pursue and dismantle Southeast Asian scam compound operations . The Strike Force targets Chinese organized crime affiliates running operations across the region and works to cut off U.S.-based internet infrastructure the compounds exploit.
Since Operation Level Up launched, the FBI reports more than $500 million in total savings across all notified victims — a number the agency views as a floor, not a ceiling, given how many victims never report.
Editorial Disclaimer: We leverage AI as part of our editorial workflow, including to support research, image generation, and quality assurance processes. All content is directed, reviewed, and approved by our editorial team, who are accountable for accuracy and integrity. AI-generated images use only tools trained on properly license material. In Bitcoin, as in media: Don’t trust. Verify.
Solana exchange Stabble urged users to pull liquidity after its former CTO was alleged to be a North Korean hacker.
The firm’s total value locked dropped 62% in the wake of the request, dropping from $1.75 million to less than $663,000.
North Korean hackers allegedly completed a sophisticated scheme to exploit Drift Protocol last week for $285 million.
Solana decentralized exchange Stabble has urged users to pull liquidity from the platform, leading to a 62% drop in its total value locked (TVL) Tuesday after the firm learned its former chief technology officer was flagged as an alleged North Korean hacker.
The protocol, which was recently taken over by a new team, began the day with around $1.75 million in TVL, according to data from DeFiLlama. After publicly sounding the alarm to a potential emergency, that value is down to less than $663,000.
“EMERGENCY!” the new protocol team posted on X. “Guys, please temporarily withdraw your liquidity instantly! Better safe than sorry.”
The alert hit social media around 9:34 a.m. ET on Tuesday, about seven hours after pseudonymous on-chain sleuth ZachXBT had identified an alleged North Korean hacker, Keisuke Watanabe, who reportedly worked as the CTO at Stabble last year.
EMERGENCY ! guys please temporally withdraw your liquidity instantly !
Despite there being no disclosed exploit on the platform, the firm said it was working on audits to ensure everything is fully secure.
“We received a message and are acting on it, our primary focus is the safety of our LPs,” the new Stabble team posted. “We’re not PR people, we’re quants and early DeFi degens. We hear you, and your feedback matters.”
The platform’s hasty move to alert the public comes less than a week after leading Solana DeFi protocol Drift was exploited for more than $285 million by hackers linked to North Korea.
In a complex, sophisticated scheme played out over six months, it is alleged that the attackers used fabricated professional identities and in-person conference meetings before deploying malicious developer tools to execute the drain.
North Korea’s connection to DeFi and on-chain exploits is a long-standing issue. Last year, hackers from North Korea exploited crypto exchange Bybit for $1.4 billion, the largest crypto hack of all-time, and individuals believed to be from North Koreaare trying to get hired at Binance every day, according to its chief security officer.
On Monday, the Solana Foundation launched multiple new security efforts for the ecosystem, saying that it would help secure DeFi protocols with a total value locked of at least $10 million.
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At FTT Lending 2026, we asked the attendees of the event common question the question: “What is the biggest buzzword of the event?”
While the fintech ecosystem is always full of trending topics, the responses from attendees provided a fascinating snapshot of where the industry is heading.
It will come as no surprise that AI was the clear and dominant answer and was mentioned repeatedly by almost every respondent, AI continues to be the primary focus for strategic thinking in lending. From simple automation to more advanced AI, the technology is viewed as “everywhere,” driving the next generation of financial services.
Beyond the AI hype, several technical and structural themes emerged as the attendees of FTT Lending pointed toward the importance of data sharing and the pursuit of a seamless, frictionless infrastructure. These elements are seen as the backbone required to support the digital transformation currently sweeping the sector.
As lending becomes more digital, the “human” side of fintech remains a priority as concepts like collaboration and trust were highlighted, particularly in how customers feel about using digital wallets. Furthermore, the industry is keeping a close eye on regulation and how organizations work with consumer duties, alongside the evergreen concern of tackling fraud.
While the “digital wallet” may be the term on everyone’s lips, FTT Lending 2026 proved that AI is the engine powering the conversation.
Paolo Ardoino has been officially confirmed as a speaker at Bitcoin 2026. As CEO of Tether (the issuer of the world’s largest stablecoin) and CTO of Bitfinex, Ardoino sits at the center of two of the most influential companies in the Bitcoin ecosystem and arrives in Las Vegas with one of the most expansive views of where Bitcoin is headed.
Ardoino graduated from the University of Genoa’s Computer Science program in 2008 and began his career as a researcher on a military project focused on high-availability, self-recovering networks and cryptography. He joined Bitfinex as a senior software developer in 2014 and became CTO in 2016. In 2017, he also became CTO of Tether. He was named CEO of Tether in December 2023. Following the passage of the GENIUS Act, Ardoino was a guest at the White House to witness the signing of the landmark stablecoin legislation into law.
Under his leadership, Tether has grown well beyond its origins as a stablecoin issuer. At the 2025 Bitcoin Conference in Las Vegas, Ardoino announced that Tether holds more than 100,000 Bitcoin as a company, alongside more than 50 tons of gold. Tether has also launched an open-source Bitcoin mining operating system, built on a self-hosted peer-to-peer architecture, designed to scale from small home installations to industrial-grade deployments managing hundreds of thousands of machines. Tether is also a majority backer of Twenty One Capital (NYSE: XXI), the Bitcoin-native public company led by Jack Mallers, also a confirmed Bitcoin 2026 speaker.
Ardoino has led Tether to invest in renewable energy and sustainable Bitcoin mining in Uruguay, and the company has expanded into AI infrastructure, telecommunications, and peer-to-peer communications platforms. His appearance at Bitcoin 2026 comes as Tether’s footprint across the Bitcoin ecosystem continues to grow across nearly every layer from stablecoin infrastructure and mining to capital markets and education. Bitcoin 2026 takes place April 27–29 at The Venetian Resort in Las Vegas.
BREAKING: TETHER CEO PAOLO ARDOINO TO SPEAK AT BITCOIN 2026 IN LAS VEGAS 🚀
“We are a company that was born with Bitcoin. We are all Bitcoiners at heart.” 🧡 pic.twitter.com/42KoevBKhN
— The Bitcoin Conference (@TheBitcoinConf) April 7, 2026
Bitcoin 2026 is Returning to Las Vegas
Bitcoin 2026 will take place April 27–29 at The Venetian, Las Vegas, and is expected to be the biggest Bitcoin event of the year.
Focused on the future of money, Bitcoin 2026 will bring together Bitcoin builders, investors, miners, policymakers, technologists, and newcomers from around the world. The event will feature a wide range of pass types, including general admission passes designed specifically for those new to Bitcoin, alongside premium passes for professionals, enterprises, and institutions.
With multiple stages, immersive experiences, technical workshops, and headline keynotes, Bitcoin 2026 is designed to serve both first-time attendees and long-time Bitcoiners shaping the next era of global adoption.
Past Bitcoin Conferences in the U.S.
Bitcoin’s flagship conference has scaled dramatically over the past five years:
2021 – Miami: 11,000 attendees
2022 – Miami: 26,000 attendees
2023 – Miami: 15,000 attendees
2024 – Nashville: 22,000 attendees
2025 – Las Vegas: 35,000 attendees
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📍 Location: The Venetian, Las Vegas 📅 Dates: April 27–29, 2026
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Why Attend Bitcoin 2026?
Bitcoin 2026 is the definitive gathering for anyone serious about the future of money. With 500+ speakers, multiple world-class stages, and programming spanning Bitcoin fundamentals, open-source development, enterprise adoption, mining, energy, AI, policy, and culture, the conference brings every corner of the Bitcoin ecosystem together under one roof.
From headline keynotes on the Nakamoto Stage to deep technical sessions for builders, institutional strategy discussions for enterprises, and beginner-friendly Bitcoin 101 education, Bitcoin 2026 is designed for everyone—from first-time attendees to the leaders shaping Bitcoin’s global adoption.
Whether you’re looking to learn, build, invest, network, or influence, Bitcoin 2026 is where Bitcoin’s next chapter is written.
Bitcoin 2026 Pass Types: Something for Everyone
Bitcoin 2026 offers a range of pass options designed to meet the needs of newcomers, professionals, enterprises, and high-net-worth Bitcoiners alike.
🎟️ Bitcoin 2026 General Admission Pass
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🎟️ Bitcoin 2026 Pro Pass
Designed for professionals, operators, and serious Bitcoin participants.
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Complimentary stay at The Venetian when you bundle your whale pass and hotel (use promo code ‘WHALEHOTEL’ here)
This is the most immersive way to experience Bitcoin 2026.
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Access to 3 official Bitcoin 2026 after-parties
2-hour open bar at each event
Evening events across Las Vegas, April 27–29
Network with Bitcoiners, builders, and industry leaders after hours
More headline speaker announcements are coming soon.
Global crypto exchange-traded products drew $224 million in inflows last week after a $414 million outflow the week before, according to CoinShares.
The headline number looks like a recovery but a deeper look shows that the rebound is far narrower than it appears.
Switzerland alone accounted for roughly $157 million of the $224 million total, meaning 70% of global inflows came from a single country. Germany and the United States each contributed about $28 million. Canada added a much smaller $11 million.
The asset breakdown is similarly concentrated. XRP led all inflows at approximately $120 million, more than half the global total and its largest weekly intake since mid-December 2025.
Virtually none of the total from U.S. spot XRP ETFs. SoSoValue data shows the five U.S.-listed XRP spot ETFs recorded near-zero daily flows throughout the past two weeks, with total net assets sitting at $940 million across Canary, Bitwise, Franklin, 21Shares, and Grayscale products. The $120 million was almost entirely European and international ETP demand.
Bitcoin ETPs drew $107 million, but only $22 million came from U.S. spot ETFs, which remain in negative territory year-to-date. Strategy disclosed over the weekend that it bought 4,871 BTC for approximately $330 million in the same week, meaning a single company spent 15 times what the entire U.S. spot bitcoin ETF complex attracted.
ETFs absorbed approximately 50,000 BTC in March’s rolling 30-day window, the highest since October 2025, CoinDesk reported last week. But nearly all of the sustained institutional buying pressure is coming through two channels — spot ETFs and Strategy — and even the ETF channel is weakening on a weekly basis.
The broader ETP market, which includes leveraged products, short products, and altcoin funds across dozens of countries, is not confirming the “institutions are buying” narrative.
Ether products continued to bleed, posting $53 million in outflows after $222 million the prior week, bringing year-to-date outflows to $327 million. That stands in sharp contrast to Bitmine Immersion Technologies (BMNR), which bought 71,252 ETH last week in its largest single-week purchase since December 2025 and now holds 4.8 million tokens worth roughly $10 billion. ETH fund investors are leaving while the largest corporate ETH buyer on earth is accelerating.
CoinShares’ James Butterfill attributed the ether weakness partly to uncertainty around the CLARITY Act, the stablecoin legislation closely tied to Ethereum’s ecosystem.
The geographic concentration matters for reading where conviction actually sits. The Coinbase Premium Index, which tracks whether bitcoin trades at a premium or discount on the exchange most associated with US institutional flows, has been persistently negative since bitcoin’s all-time high above $126,000 in October 2025.
U.S. buyers are not stepping in at scale, and the ETP data confirms it. The $28 million in US inflows against $157 million from Switzerland suggests the marginal buyer right now is European, not American.
Risk markets, including bitcoin BTC$70,143.19, staged a late-day rally Tuesday after Axios reported Iran’s positive reception to Pakistan’s request for a two-week ceasefire.
“The President has been made been aware of the proposal, and a response will come,” said White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavit, when asked about the report.
Under heavy pressure earlier in the session, the Nasdaq rallied to close modestly in the green. Crypto followed suit, with bitcoin BTC$70,143.19 climbing to $69,400 after sliding below $68,000 hours prior.
Markets got off on the wrong foot Tuesday after President Trump said “a whole civilization will die,” if Iran didn’t open the Strait of Hormuz prior to his 8 pm ET deadline. That remark prompted strong criticism from politicians and other figures who had previously supported his campaign and presidency, with some even calling for the impeachment of Trump.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has advanced a new regulatory framework that begins to define how U.S. banks and their subsidiaries may issue and manage stablecoins under the GENIUS Act, marking a significant step in the federal oversight of dollar-pegged digital assets.
In a proposed rule approved on April 7, the FDIC outlined requirements for “permitted payment stablecoin issuers” (PPSIs), which are expected to operate as subsidiaries of FDIC-supervised institutions. The framework sets standards for reserves, redemption practices, capital, liquidity, cybersecurity, and risk management, and is now open to a 60-day public comment period.
The proposal implements provisions of the GENIUS Act, formally known as the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act, which directs federal banking regulators to create a unified system for regulating stablecoin issuance in the United States.
Under the FDIC’s framework, issuers would be required to maintain full backing of stablecoins on a 1:1 basis with eligible reserve assets. These reserves must be monitored daily and held separately from other business activities. Eligible assets include U.S. currency, balances held at Federal Reserve Banks, insured bank deposits, short-term U.S. Treasury securities, and certain overnight repurchase agreements.
The proposal also sets concentration limits on reserve holdings and restricts exposure to counterparties. The FDIC said eligible reserve assets must remain highly liquid and low risk to ensure redemption capacity during periods of stress.
Redemption standards form a central component of the rule. Issuers would be required to publish clear redemption policies and generally process redemption requests within two business days. In cases where large withdrawals exceed 10% of outstanding issuance within a 24-hour period, issuers must notify regulators and may request extensions.
JUST IN: FDIC approves proposal to implement the requirements and standards for US stablecoins under the GENIUS Act 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/B4i93gAbnP
FDIC Chair Travis Hill said in prepared remarks that the framework is intended to address operational risk and financial stability concerns as stablecoin usage expands in payments infrastructure.
The proposal also introduces capital requirements for issuers. New PPSIs would be required to hold a minimum of $5 million in capital for their first three years of operation, with additional requirements possible based on supervisory assessment. Ongoing capital must consist primarily of common equity tier 1 and additional tier 1 instruments.
In addition, issuers would need to maintain a separate liquidity buffer equal to 12 months of operating expenses. The FDIC described this buffer as distinct from reserve requirements backing issued stablecoins.
The rule addresses cybersecurity and operational resilience, requiring issuers to maintain systems covering private-key management, blockchain monitoring, incident response, and independent audits. Annual compliance certifications related to anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing programs are also required.
The FDIC clarified that stablecoins issued under this framework would not receive deposit insurance protections under the standard $250,000 coverage limit. Reserves held at insured institutions would be treated as corporate deposits of the issuer, not individual stablecoin holders.
However, the proposal states that tokenized deposits that meet the legal definition of a bank deposit would receive standard deposit insurance treatment regardless of the technological format used.
The FDIC’s action follows earlier implementation efforts tied to the GENIUS Act and comes alongside parallel rulemaking from other banking regulators, including the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
The proposal is expected to be revised following the public comment process before final adoption. The GENIUS Act sets a statutory deadline for implementation by mid-2026, placing pressure on regulators to finalize a unified stablecoin framework in the coming months.
Editorial Disclaimer: We leverage AI as part of our editorial workflow, including to support research, image generation, and quality assurance processes. All content is directed, reviewed, and approved by our editorial team, who are accountable for accuracy and integrity. AI-generated images use only tools trained on properly license material. In Bitcoin, as in media: Don’t trust. Verify.
