How would the Federal Reserve's proposed stablecoin issuer rules under the GENIUS Act affect XRP?

The full answer

What did the Federal Reserve propose on September 24, 2026?

The Federal Reserve’s headline reads: “Federal Reserve Seeks Comment on Stablecoin Issuer Framework Proposals.” On September 24, 2026, the Federal Reserve Board requested public comment on two proposals to establish a regulatory framework for Board-supervised payment stablecoin issuers under the GENIUS Act [1].

The GENIUS Act was signed into law on July 18, 2025, and establishes a regulatory framework for payment stablecoins, according to the Latham & Watkins policy tracker [4]. The Federal Reserve’s proposals fill in how that framework would apply to issuers the Board supervises. Treasury had earlier proposed the first rule to implement the Act, as its April 1, 2026 release described [6].

When would the rules take effect?

The Act’s effective date depends on rulemaking. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said on February 25, 2026 that the date is the earlier of 18 months after enactment (July 18, 2025) or 120 days after the primary federal payment stablecoin regulators issue final regulations [5]. Latham & Watkins, checking on September 30, 2026, gave the same test [4]. The September 24 proposals are requests for comment, not final rules [1].

Does the proposal apply to XRP itself?

The proposals concern payment stablecoin issuers [1]. XRP is a native token of the XRP Ledger, not a payment stablecoin, so the issuer framework does not govern it directly.

The connection runs through RLUSD, which Ripple issues. Ripple Labs submitted a comment letter to the Federal Reserve on February 6, 2026, urging modifications to the proposed Reserve Bank Payment Account framework to better accommodate stablecoin issuers and digital payment facilitators, according to Bitcoin.com’s February 13, 2026 report [3]. Any change to what issuers must do would first reach RLUSD. The what RLUSD is page explains how RLUSD relates to XRP, and the page on redemption and issuer failure covers what holders can expect if an issuer fails.

How does this relate to the Fed’s payment account proposal?

The two efforts are separate. On May 20, 2026, the Board requested comment on a “payment account” that legally eligible institutions could use to clear and settle payments [2]. Ripple wrote to the Fed about that framework on February 6, 2026, asking for changes to better accommodate stablecoin issuers, as Bitcoin.com reported on February 13, 2026 [3]. The September 24 proposals sit under the GENIUS Act and deal with Board-supervised issuers [1].

What is the case that XRP is little affected?

Alderoty’s letter itself points that way. He wrote that XRP can serve as a liquidity tool for fast, low-cost transfers, but that Ripple’s payments architecture is built to support many currencies, tokens and use cases, regardless of the underlying asset being moved [3]. On that account, a stablecoin framework would change how RLUSD is issued without making XRP more or less necessary for payments. The page on whether stablecoins could make XRP unnecessary sets out that argument in full.

Not every Board-supervised issuer fits one regime either. Issuers with no more than $10 billion of payment stablecoins outstanding may opt for a state-level regime that is substantially similar to the federal framework, according to Latham & Watkins [4]. The Federal Reserve’s proposals therefore do not describe every issuer’s regulator.

As of Sep 25, 2026, investigators still need to establish how the backend was penetrated, what privileges the attackers obtained, why existing controls did not reject the transactions, and whether additional authentication or transaction-policy safeguards could have stopped them.

As of October 7, 2026, the Federal Reserve has not issued final rules from these two proposals. Ripple has not published a response, and no regulator has said whether the proposals alter how RLUSD is issued or backed. Whatever the outcome, XRP’s price is also moved by other forces, such as the scheduled US inflation and jobs reports covered on the macro reports and XRP page. For how stablecoin supply on the ledger could change, see the XRPL stablecoin supply scenarios.