SEC Cuts Stablecoin Haircut to 2%, But What Does it Mean?

Oluwapelumi Adejumo

Sat, February 21, 2026 astatine 6:43 AM CST 3 min read

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has paved the mode for Wall Street to integrate stablecoins into accepted finance.

On February 19, the fiscal regulator issued guidance allowing broker-dealers to use a 2% "haircut" to positions successful outgo stablecoins. A haircut is the percent of an asset's worth that a fiscal instauration cannot number toward its deployable capital, acting arsenic a customer-protection buffer against marketplace risk.

Previously, broker-dealers faced a punitive 100% haircut connected stablecoins. If a fiscal steadfast held $1 cardinal successful integer dollars to facilitate accelerated on-chain settlement, it had to fastener up that capital.

That request efficaciously made organization crypto trading economically radioactive for accepted fiscal institutions.

By dropping the superior punishment to 2%, the SEC has granted compliant stablecoins the aforesaid economical attraction arsenic accepted wealth marketplace funds.

"This is different terrific measurement successful the close absorption from our squad successful the Division of Trading and Markets to region barriers and unlock entree to on-chain markets," SEC Chair Paul Atkins said.

Interestingly, this pivot is heavy anchored successful the recently passed GENIUS Act. This is simply a national regulatory model for outgo stablecoins successful the US. It mandates 1:1 reserve backing and strengthens anti-money laundering (AML) compliance.

SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce noted that the caller authorities forces stringent reserve requirements for stablecoin issuers.

According to her, these requirements are adjacent stricter than those applied to authorities wealth marketplace funds, which warrant the reduced superior penalty.

"Stablecoins are indispensable to transacting connected blockchain rails. Using stablecoins volition marque it feasible for broker-dealers to prosecute successful a broader scope of concern activities relating to tokenized securities and different crypto assets," Peirce added.

In airy of this, US-regulated entities specified arsenic Circle’s USDC could spot important adoption from firms successful the $6 trillion sector.