Crypto: Us Credit Union Regulator Proposes Stablecoin Licensing Path

The US National Credit Union Administration proposed a federal licensing regime for payment stablecoin issuers operating through credit union subsidiaries.

The United States National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) has proposed its first rules under the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act, sketching out how subsidiaries of federally insured credit unions could apply to become federally supervised payment stablecoin issuers.

The NCUA, which oversees more than 4,000 federally insured credit unions serving roughly 144 million members and about $2.38 trillion in assets as of mid-2025, is using this proposal to set out the process and standards for licensing such issuers.

Under the proposal, any payment stablecoin issuer that is a “subsidiary of an insured credit union” would need to obtain an NCUA permitted payment stablecoin issuer (PPSI) license before issuing coins.

Federally insured credit unions would also be prohibited from investing in, or lending to, payment stablecoin issuers unless those issuers hold an NCUA PPSI license.

The draft is narrowly focused on licensing and investment limits. A forthcoming proposal will implement GENIUS Act standards and restrictions for PPSIs, including requirements related to reserves, capital, liquidity, illicit finance, and information technology risk management.

For now, the rulemaking is about defining the licensing and oversight architecture, and any eventual rollout of stablecoin services to members would depend on future approvals and additional standards.

“A forthcoming proposal will propose regulations to implement the standards and restrictions imposed by the GENIUS Act on PPSIs,” the preamble states.

Related: The GENIUS Act and MiCA will split stablecoins into cash and shadow deposits

Two features stand out for the broader crypto market. First, the NCUA would be barred from denying a substantially complete application solely because a stablecoin is issued “on an open, public, or decentralized network,” language that explicitly prevents public blockchain issuance from being rejected on that basis alone.

Source: CoinTelegraph