New SEC Policy Allows 2% Haircut Rule for Stablecoin Capital

• SEC sets 2 percent haircut, letting brokers recognize most payment stablecoin capital value.
• Guidance shifts firms away from prior full deductions and supports tokenized settlement.
• Analysts track how future SEC actions may refine stablecoin rules across broker networks.

The SEC has taken a notable step in how broker-dealers treat payment stablecoins, offering guidance that alters long-standing capital assumptions. On February 19, the Division of Trading and Markets quietly added a new entry to its “Broker Dealer Financial Responsibilities” FAQ. The addition wasn’t dramatic on its face, yet the implications ripple through firms that juggle digital assets and traditional finance rules.

Under the update, broker-dealers may classify certain payment stablecoins as having a ready market and apply a 2% haircut to proprietary positions when calculating net capital. In practical terms, the firms can now count 98% of the asset’s value instead of writing off the entire position, which had been the cautious interpretation for years.

From 100% to 98%: What Changed

Rule 15c3-1, the framework that dictates how broker-dealers manage net capital, has never explicitly addressed payment stablecoins. That absence created a conservative approach: many firms treated them as too uncertain to factor into capital metrics. However, the new FAQ, added as Question No. 5 under “Broker Dealer Financial Responsibilities,” alters that treatment.

Per the report, it permits a 2% reduction, aligning the capital charge more closely with the haircut applied to money market funds. Commissioner Hester M. Peirce underscored this point in a separate statement. She noted that issuers of payment stablecoins typically hold reserves in U.S. dollars and short-term Treasurys, assets that are already woven into traditional liquidity management.

Applying a full deduction, she argued, overstated the risk of instruments backed by those reserve assets. She also pointed out that when the GENIUS Act takes effect, permitted issuers would operate under reserve rules tighter than those applied to some investment companies.

Regardless, the FAQ does not rewrite the rulebook, yet it gives firms a clearer sense of how the SEC staff expects them to treat these assets today. That alone marks a departure from the uncertainty that has shadowed tokenized finance inside regulated broker-dealer structures.

Industry Sees Room for Operational Movement

In response to this policy, market participants reacted with something close to relief. Cody Carbone of the Digital Chamber said the update helps firms navigate existing securities laws without guessing how the SEC might view their accounting treatment.

For platforms handling large daily flows, retail brokerages, market-making desks, and banks that straddle both worlds, the haircut figure carries real operational weight. Ethena Labs’ deputy general counsel, Larry Florio, further summed it up with a straightforward line on LinkedIn: stablecoins now function as working capital.

For firms that previously avoided holding them in inventory, the adjustment opens a door. Liquidity provision, settlement functions, and tokenized-asset operations become easier to structure when capital recognition is no longer zeroed out by default.

This does not signal a green light for expansive stablecoin activity, but it reduces friction. Accordingly, firms that once hesitated to custody tokenized securities or mediate trades involving digital assets may now revisit those decisions with fewer regulatory shadows overhead.

Related: Dubai Launches Phase Two for Tokenized Property Trading

Regulatory Context and What Comes Next

The SEC has leaned on guidance rather than formal rulemaking for much of its digital-asset posture, and analysts expect that pattern to continue. Because the 2% treatment is housed in an FAQ, it could shift again if policy direction changes, though no such signal has emerged.

Alongside this update, the agency is preparing to examine a framework for crypto assets that fall under investment-contract analysis and explore an innovation exemption for limited tokenized-securities trading. These efforts are part of a broader attempt to balance market structure and investor protection.

For now, the haircut revision stands as a clear marker: payment stablecoins, long stuck on the fringes of capital treatment, have been pulled into the SEC’s working architecture in a way that provides definition, if not full resolution, to how regulated firms may handle them.