Digital Assets, Stablecoins & Financial Technology
DIGITAL ASSETS, STABLECOINS & FINANCIAL TECHNOLOGY
Digital Asset Freedom
Ownership and Use
Americans should generally remain free to:
own;
buy;
sell;
transfer;
mine;
stake where lawful;
self-custody
lawful decentralized digital assets.
The government should not require every digital asset to receive government permission merely to exist.
No Government Approval of Mathematics or Code
Publishing software, blockchain protocols, or cryptographic code should not require a financial license merely because the technology could be used to create or transfer value.
Regulation should focus on:
businesses;
financial promises;
custody;
fraud;
commercial issuance;
consumer-facing financial services.
Digital Asset Classification
Federal law should establish clear categories for digital assets.
Possible categories include:
Decentralized Digital Asset
An asset operating without a controlling issuer that can unilaterally alter supply, redemption, or user ownership.
Payment Stablecoin
A digital asset whose issuer promises redemption at a defined value such as one U.S. dollar.
Investment Token
A token sold substantially as an investment dependent on the managerial or entrepreneurial efforts of an identifiable issuer.
Utility or Access Token
A token primarily providing access to a defined product or network rather than promising investment returns.
Classification should depend on economic reality rather than marketing terminology.
Digital Asset Legitimacy Standard
Government should not determine whether a cryptocurrency is "good."
Instead, assets and businesses seeking regulated status, exchange listing, or public solicitation should meet objective disclosure and integrity standards.
A token marketed broadly to the public should disclose where applicable:
identifiable issuer or controlling organization;
supply structure;
issuance schedule;
concentration of ownership;
administrator privileges;
ability to freeze or alter balances;
redemption rights;
reserve backing;
major technical risks;
financial interests of founders;
audits where promised;
whether source code is available for review;
material conflicts of interest.
Registered Digital Asset Category
Digital assets meeting federal disclosure and integrity requirements may qualify as Registered Digital Assets or another neutral designation.
Registration should mean:
The required information has been disclosed and the relevant business requirements are satisfied.
It should not mean:
The United States guarantees this investment or says its price will rise.
No Government Guarantee
Registered status should never imply:
guaranteed value;
guaranteed profit;
absence of risk;
federal insurance unless specifically provided by law.
Consumers must remain responsible for ordinary investment risk.
Fraudulent or Deceptive Tokens
A token should not qualify for regulated public distribution where organizers knowingly:
fabricate reserves;
hide administrator control;
misrepresent token supply;
conceal founder holdings;
make materially false claims;
create fake audits;
steal investor funds;
manipulate markets through concealed insider activity.
Those actions should trigger fraud enforcement.
Founder Identification for Publicly Issued Tokens
Where an identifiable organization sells newly created tokens broadly to the public as a commercial venture, controlling persons should generally disclose their verified identities to the appropriate regulator.
This does not require the creator of a truly decentralized protocol to remain publicly identifiable forever where there is no ongoing controlling issuer.
Background Standards for Custodians and Major Issuers
Senior persons controlling:
custodial exchanges;
stablecoin reserves;
major public token issuers;
digital-asset brokerages
should meet fit-and-proper-person standards.
Relevant review may include:
major financial fraud convictions;
embezzlement;
cyber theft;
sanctions violations;
serious fiduciary misconduct.
Crypto Exchanges and Custodians
Businesses holding customer digital assets should be licensed or chartered under a clear national framework.
Requirements should include:
customer-asset segregation;
cybersecurity;
financial audits;
proof of assets and liabilities;
disaster recovery;
disclosure of lending practices;
withdrawal rights;
fraud controls.
Customer Assets Are Not Company Property
A custodian holding customer digital assets should not secretly treat customer property as its own operating capital.
Customer assets should be legally segregated from company assets except where the customer knowingly agrees to lending, staking, or another defined arrangement.
Proof of Reserves and Liabilities
Large custodians should periodically demonstrate:
assets actually held;
liabilities owed;
major encumbrances.
Public proof-of-reserves should not substitute for full independent financial auditing.
Stablecoins
Anyone promising that a token is redeemable at a fixed value should be required to prove the backing supporting that promise.
Stablecoin issuers should maintain:
high-quality liquid reserves;
transparent reserve reports;
independent audits;
redemption rights;
cybersecurity controls;
segregation of reserve assets.
Current federal policy is already moving toward specific stablecoin issuer rules involving reserves, customer identification, and financial safeguards.
No Fake Stablecoins
A token advertised as "$1 equals $1" should not be allowed to maintain inadequate undisclosed reserves while presenting itself as equivalent to cash.
Materially false reserve claims should constitute financial fraud.
Decentralized Assets
Truly decentralized assets should not require an issuer license where no issuer exists.
Users should remain free to transact directly with one another.
Regulation should focus on:
fraud;
custodial intermediaries;
exchanges;
commercial issuers;
criminal misuse.
Self-Custody
Individuals should have the right to personally hold their own cryptographic keys and digital assets.
Government should not require individuals to place lawful digital assets with a bank, exchange, or approved custodian.
No Ban Based Merely on Volatility
An asset should not be banned merely because:
its price is volatile;
investors may lose money;
government considers it speculative.
Adults remain free to make risky investments where fraud is not involved.
Risk must be honestly disclosed.
Exchange Listing Standards
Regulated exchanges should establish objective listing standards addressing:
technical security;
transparency;
market manipulation;
issuer disclosures;
liquidity;
conflicts of interest.
An exchange listing should not constitute government endorsement.
Scam and Manipulation Controls
Regulated digital-asset markets should prohibit:
wash trading;
fake volume;
insider manipulation;
pump-and-dump fraud;
fabricated reserve claims;
undisclosed paid promotion.
Paid Crypto Promotion
People receiving compensation to promote a digital asset should clearly disclose:
that they were paid;
who paid them;
material financial interests in the asset.
National Licensing Rather Than Fifty Conflicting Systems
Where federal authority is appropriate, exchanges, custodians, and major payment-stablecoin issuers should operate under one primary national framework rather than fifty materially inconsistent state licensing systems.
States may enforce fraud and consumer-protection laws but should not create unnecessary barriers to interstate financial technology.
Licensing Should Not Protect Incumbents
License requirements should be designed around:
security;
honesty;
financial responsibility;
custody;
disclosures.
They should not impose arbitrary capital or compliance burdens whose main effect is preventing small legitimate competitors from entering the market.
Regulatory Sandbox
New financial technologies should have access to controlled regulatory pilot programs.
Qualified companies may test innovative products under:
limited customer exposure;
enhanced disclosure;
regulatory supervision;
defined loss limits.
Successful models may then transition into ordinary regulation.
Criminal Assets and Digital Currency
Digital assets used in proven:
fraud;
ransomware;
trafficking;
terrorism financing;
theft
may be frozen or forfeited under ordinary due-process standards.
The fact that cryptocurrency can be misused should not make ordinary users criminals.
Financial Privacy
Digital-asset users should receive privacy protections comparable to other forms of financial activity.
Government should not obtain detailed identifiable transaction records from regulated intermediaries without appropriate legal process.
Lawful blockchain analysis may be used in investigations, but government should not create unnecessary comprehensive dossiers on lawful users.
No Programmable Government Control Over Private Money
Private digital assets should not be required to contain government-controlled mechanisms capable of:
remotely expiring funds;
limiting lawful purchases;
automatically imposing political restrictions;
disabling lawful private transactions.
Cybersecurity for Digital Assets
Custodians and major exchanges should meet heightened CISA cybersecurity standards because compromise can result in irreversible financial losses.
Requirements may include:
hardware-backed multifactor authentication;
cold storage;
multisignature controls;
privileged-access management;
withdrawal safeguards;
immutable audit logs;
penetration testing;
incident reporting.
Federal Cyber Standards for Financial Institutions
Banks, brokerages, payment processors, major cryptocurrency custodians, and other financial institutions should operate under high cybersecurity standards.
Organizations trusted with money should also be required to adequately protect the systems controlling that money.
Core MPA Standard
Regulate fraud and custodians, not mathematics.
Americans should remain free to use lawful decentralized financial technology.
But businesses asking the public to trust them with money should prove that they are:
transparent;
solvent;
secure;
competently managed;
honest about what they are selling.
Government should establish objective standards that separate legitimate financial products from deceptive schemes without deciding which lawful technology people are allowed to believe in.
Freedom to innovate should remain broad. Permission to deceive should not.
Related policies: Federal Reserve Governance & Monetary Policy; National Cybersecurity Standards & Trusted Personnel; Privacy Rights; Consumer Rights.
Status: Proposed / Draft — not yet formally adopted.
Originally published: September 25, 2026.
Last updated: September 25, 2026.
Version: Draft 0.1.