Overview
- On February 6, the CFTC reissued Staff Letter 25-40 to confirm that payment stablecoins issued by national trust banks qualify as margin collateral for FCMs.
- CFTC staff said the December 2025 letter unintentionally excluded national trust banks, and the correction establishes parity with state-regulated issuers such as Circle and Paxos.
- The no-action framework lets FCMs accept qualifying payment stablecoins and hold certain proprietary stablecoins in segregated customer accounts under strict risk controls.
- Participating firms must maintain operational safeguards, segregate customer assets, file regular reports on digital asset holdings, and promptly disclose operational or cybersecurity incidents.
- The move folds into the CFTC’s tokenization pilot and broader federal efforts after the GENIUS Act, while the FDIC’s separate bank-subsidiary stablecoin proposal remains open with an extended comment period.