Lawmakers stumble on stablecoin terms as US Congress grills Fed’s Bowman

US Representative Stephen Lynch pressed Federal Reserve Vice Chair Michelle Bowman on Tuesday over her past remarks encouraging banks to “engage fully” with digital assets, questioning the Fed’s role in advancing crypto frameworks while showing confusion over the definition of stablecoins.

In a Tuesday oversight hearing, Lynch asked Bowman, the Fed vice chair for supervision, about remarks she had made at the Santander International Banking Conference in November. According to the congressman, Bowman said she supported banks “[engaging] fully” with respect to digital assets.

However, according to Bowman’s comments at the conference, she referred to “digital assets” rather than specifically cryptocurrencies. The questioning turned into Lynch asking Bowman about distinctions between digital assets and stablecoins.

The Fed official said that the central bank had been authorized by Congress — specifically, the GENIUS Act, a bill aimed at regulating payment stablecoins — to explore a framework for digital assets.

“The GENIUS Act requires us to promulgate regulations to allow these types of activities,” said Bowman.

While the price of many cryptocurrencies can be volatile, stablecoins, like those pegged to the US dollar, are generally “stable,” as the name suggests. Though there have been instances where some coins have depegged from their respective currencies, such as the crash of Terra’s algorithmic stablecoin in 2022, the overwhelming majority of stablecoins rarely fluctuate past 1% of their peg.

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Bowman said in August that staff at the Fed should be permitted to hold small “amounts of crypto or other types of digital assets” to gain an understanding of the technology.

FDIC acting chair says stablecoin framework is coming soon

Also testifying at the Tuesday hearing was Travis Hill, acting chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. The government agency is one of many responsible for implementing the GENIUS Act, which US President Donald Trump signed into law in July.

According to Hill, the FDIC will propose a stablecoin framework “later this month,” which will include requirements for supervising issuers.