US regulator mulls guidance for tokenized deposit insurance, stablecoins

The acting chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the regulatory body overseeing banks in the US, is reportedly considering guidance for tokenized deposit insurance and plans to launch an application process for stablecoins by year’s end.

Acting FDIC Chair Travis Hill, who has made bullish statements about tokenization in the past, told the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia’s Fintech Conference on Thursday that the regulator will eventually release guidance around tokenized deposit insurance, according to reports.

The FDIC protects depositors in the event of a bank failure and insures money in accounts at banks that are insured by the regulator.

 “My view for a long time has been that a deposit is a deposit. Moving a deposit from a traditional-finance world to a blockchain or distributed-ledger world shouldn’t change the legal nature of it,” Hill said, as reported by Bloomberg.

Strong interest in tokenization

Regulators and Wall Street have shown serious interest in the real-world asset (RWA) tokenization sector this year.

Excluding stablecoins, the total value of tokenized real-world assets surpassed $24 billion in the first half of the year, with private credit and US Treasurys making up the bulk of the market, according to a report by RedStone.