Republican lawmakers on the United States House Financial Services Committee have released a draft bill focused solely on payment stablecoins, as opposed to regulating other aspects of digital asset markets. The current version of the bill has narrowed the scope of an earlier draft proposed in September 2022, which aimed to regulate custodial service providers, algorithmic stablecoins, and a study on central bank digital currencies. The Federal Reserve would largely be responsible for non-bank stablecoin issuers, who would also have to meet federal criteria to qualify as payment stablecoin issuers even under a state charter. The new version of the bill no longer includes a ban on algorithmic stablecoins, which had been proposed in the wake of the depegging of TerraUSD Classic (USTC).
The bill represents a significant change from an earlier draft that was criticized for not being representative of a compromise between Democratic and Republican party members. The draft bill comes amid continued regulatory scrutiny of stablecoins in the US.
