{"id":5135,"date":"2025-10-21T15:16:50","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T15:16:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digkrypton.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/21\/federal-reserve-enters-a-new-era-in-payments-waller-welcomes-crypto-to-the-table\/"},"modified":"2025-10-21T15:16:50","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T15:16:50","slug":"federal-reserve-enters-a-new-era-in-payments-waller-welcomes-crypto-to-the-table","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/digkrypton.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/21\/federal-reserve-enters-a-new-era-in-payments-waller-welcomes-crypto-to-the-table\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal Reserve Enters a \u2018New Era\u2019 in Payments, Waller Welcomes Crypto to the Table"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bitcoin Magazine<\/a><\/p>\n

Federal Reserve Enters a \u2018New Era\u2019 in Payments, Waller Welcomes Crypto to the Table<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller says the central bank is entering a \u201cnew era\u201d in payments \u2014 one that openly embraces decentralized finance (DeFi), distributed ledgers, and digital asset innovation as part of the mainstream financial system.<\/p>\n

Speaking Tuesday at the Fed\u2019s first-ever Payments Innovation Conference<\/em> in Washington, Waller said the central bank<\/a> intends to play an \u201cactive role\u201d in the crypto revolution transforming the global payments landscape.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The conference is ongoing, but Bitcoin\u2019s price<\/a> reacted positively after a rough night. When the conference started, Bitcoin\u2019s price was around $108,000 but has now jumped to $110,321, at the time of writing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Waller\u2019s sentiment is a pretty striking departure from the caution and skepticism that have long defined U.S. regulators\u2019 stance toward crypto.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe DeFi industry is not viewed with suspicion or scorn,\u201d Waller told<\/a> attendees. \u201cRather, today, you are welcomed to the conversation on the future of payments in the United States \u2014 on our home field.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Waller, distributed ledgers and crypto assets are now \u201cwoven into the fabric of the payment and financial systems.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Fed, he added, is studying new models for integrating emerging financial technologies with the legacy banking infrastructure \u2014 including a potential prototype for a new \u201cpayment account\u201d framework that would expand central bank access to innovators in the space.<\/p>\n

A \u201cskinny\u201d master account<\/h2>\n

Waller described the idea as a \u201cskinny master account,\u201d designed to give legally eligible institutions \u2014 particularly fintechs and payment firms focused on digital assets \u2014 limited but direct access to the Federal Reserve\u2019s payment rails.\u00a0<\/p>\n

These accounts would not pay interest, would have balance caps, and would exclude overdraft privileges or discount window access, but they would allow payment-focused entities to settle transactions directly with the Fed<\/a> rather than through partner banks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis payment account concept would be targeted to provide basic Federal Reserve payment services to legally eligible institutions that right now conduct payment services primarily through a third-party bank,\u201d Waller explained. \u201cPayments innovation moves fast, and the Federal Reserve needs to keep up.\u201d<\/p>\n

From crypto resistance to engagement<\/h2>\n

Waller\u2019s tone towards crypto is a massive policy shift in Washington. Over the past year, the central bank has quietly withdrawn restrictive guidance on crypto and stablecoin activity that discouraged banks from participating in digital asset markets.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It also removed \u201creputational risk\u201d considerations from its supervisory programs \u2014 a long-criticized tool that many in the industry said was used to justify debanking crypto companies.<\/p>\n

This post Federal Reserve Enters a \u2018New Era\u2019 in Payments, Waller Welcomes Crypto to the Table<\/a> first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine<\/a> and is written by Micah Zimmerman<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bitcoin Magazine Federal Reserve Enters a \u2018New Era\u2019 in Payments, Waller Welcomes Crypto to the Table Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller says the central bank is entering a \u201cnew era\u201d in payments \u2014 one that openly embraces decentralized finance (DeFi), distributed ledgers, and digital asset innovation as part of the mainstream financial system. Speaking Tuesday […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":5136,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5135","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bitcoin"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digkrypton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digkrypton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digkrypton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digkrypton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digkrypton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5135\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digkrypton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digkrypton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digkrypton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digkrypton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}