Commodity Futures Trading Commission reissues Staff Letter 25-40 to allow national trust banks as payment stablecoin issuers under its no-action position

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Market Participants Division has reissued CFTC Staff Letter 25-40 with a limited revision to the definition of “payment stablecoin,” specifying that a national trust bank may be a permitted issuer for purposes of the no-action position. The no-action position covers certain requirements applicable to futures commission merchants that accept non-securities digital assets, including payment stablecoins, as customer margin collateral and that hold certain proprietary payment stablecoins in segregated customer accounts. Staff Letter 25-40 was originally issued on 8 December 2025. Division staff later became aware that payment stablecoins that otherwise meet the definition in the letter may be issued by a national trust bank and stated it did not intend to exclude those issuers, prompting the expanded definition in the reissued letter. Chairman Michael S. Selig described the change as expanding the eligible tokenized collateral covered by the no-action letter to include payment stablecoins issued by national trust banks.