WASHINGTON — The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has revised its guidance on payment stablecoins to allow those issued by national trust banks to qualify as eligible collateral under a staff no-action position.
In a notice issued Feb. 6, the CFTC’s Market Participants Division reissued Staff Letter 25-40, updating the definition of payment stablecoins so that tokens issued by national trust banks may be treated as permitted issuers, according to reporting by Bitcoin.com News. The change affects futures commission merchants that accept non-securities digital assets as customer margin collateral and hold certain proprietary payment stablecoins in segregated customer accounts.
CFTC Chairman Michael S. Selig said in a post on X that the staff action expands the list of eligible tokenized collateral at a time when federal policy toward stablecoins is evolving, Bitcoin.com News reported.
“Today, CFTC staff is expanding the list of eligible tokenized collateral to include stablecoins issued by national trust banks,” Selig wrote, adding that the move follows enactment of the GENIUS Act and the agency’s updated collateral framework.
Builds on Earlier Letter
According to the report, the revised letter builds on Staff Letter 25-40, first issued Dec. 8, 2025, which provided relief from certain requirements when customer margin collateral consists of qualifying non-securities digital assets, including payment stablecoins. After its release, staff determined that the original definition unintentionally excluded stablecoins issued by national trust banks, even when those tokens otherwise met all criteria outlined in the guidance.
Selig cited the regulatory backdrop for the change, noting that during President Trump’s first term the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency chartered the first national trust banks authorized to custody and issue payment stablecoins. Those institutions, he said, continue to play a key role in the stablecoin ecosystem, Bitcoin.com News stated.
Conflict Cited
Division staff said the earlier exclusion conflicted with the intended scope of the no-action position and risked creating unnecessary uncertainty for registered intermediaries. By explicitly adding national trust banks as permitted issuers, the updated definition aligns the guidance with existing federal charters, reduces interpretive friction for futures commission merchants and promotes consistent treatment of collateral across regulated derivatives markets, according to Bitcoin.com News.
The CFTC said the revision preserves all substantive conditions and limitations of the original relief while reinforcing the role of federally chartered trust banks as payment-focused stablecoins increasingly intersect with traditional market infrastructure.
