Jeff Schmid, president of the Kansas City Fed, argues that FedNow and real-time bank rails are better positioned for the future of US payments than stablecoins and blockchain-based platforms. He says the real-time settlement of daily payment flows, projected at between $5 trillion and $10 trillion, will become the norm, placing liquidity management at the center of banking operations. FedNow, launched in July 2023, counted 1,949 participating financial institutions as of October 2026 and processed 6.38 million transactions worth $370.9 billion in the third quarter of 2026. Schmid also presents tokenized deposits as a way to bring crypto-style programmability into the regulated banking system. The GENIUS Act of 2025 has nevertheless given stablecoins a clearer US regulatory framework, while Schmid’s statements do not represent a Federal Reserve policy decision.
Source: Read the original article
