Federal Reserve to Host Stablecoin Conference on October 21, Examining Business Models and Regulatory Frameworks

The Federal Reserve will host a conference on October 21 to discuss the future of payments innovation, with stablecoins set to take center stage. The event aims to balance innovation with stability and will feature panel discussions on stablecoin business models, tokenization, and the role of AI in payments. Policymakers have been weighing the potential benefits and risks of stablecoins, particularly if they replace bank deposits or disrupt existing systems. The conference arrives just months after Congress passed the first federal stablecoin legislation in July.

The Federal Reserve has announced that it will host a conference on October 21 to discuss the future of payments innovation, with stablecoins set to take center stage. The event aims to balance innovation with stability and will feature panel discussions on stablecoin business models, tokenization, and the role of AI in payments. Policymakers have been weighing the potential benefits and risks of stablecoins, particularly if they replace bank deposits or disrupt existing systems. The conference arrives just months after Congress passed the first federal stablecoin legislation in July.

The conference, titled "Payments Innovation," will bring together a range of interested parties to discuss how to further innovate and improve the payments system. According to Governor Christopher Waller, "Innovation has been a constant in payments to meet the changing needs of consumers and businesses" [1]. The event will feature panel discussions on several aspects of payments innovation, including the convergence of traditional and decentralized finance; emerging stablecoin use cases and business models; the intersection of artificial intelligence and payments; and the tokenization of financial products and services.

The Federal Reserve's involvement in the payments business is extensive. It manages the Fedwire Funds Service and operates the FedNow real-time payments program, which has around 1,400 participating banks and $2.7 billion in daily transactions [2]. Governor Waller has emphasized the need for the Federal Reserve to engage with innovators in the industry to understand the potential of emerging technologies in improving existing platforms and services [3].

The conference will be livestreamed for the public at federalreserve.gov, with additional details to be announced in the future. For media inquiries, please email or call (202) 452-2955.

References:
[1] https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/pressreleases/other20250903a.htm
[2] https://cryptorank.io/news/feed/3e9df-fed-to-host-a-conference-on-tradfi-defi-ai
[3] https://finance.yahoo.com/news/fed-includes-stablecoins-defi-october-192651887.html