New Forms of Money and the U.S. Monetary Aggregates

# New Forms of Money and the U.S. Monetary Aggregates

> Evidence tier: B1
> Evidence type: Official Federal Reserve staff research note; authors' views, not Board policy deliberation
> Source: [Federal Reserve Board](https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/notes/feds-notes/new-forms-of-money-and-the-u-s-monetary-aggregates-20260904.html)
> Published: 2026-09-04
> Captured: 2026-09-09T02:08:30.751Z

## Source summary

Federal Reserve Board staff researchers Kristen Payne and Mary-Frances Styczynski outline a functional framework for measuring tokenised deposits, tokenised money-market funds and payment stablecoins in U.S. monetary aggregates. They say tokenised deposits are already captured in M1 or non-M1 M2 depending on their terms, retail tokenised money-market funds are already included in M2, and payment stablecoins could eventually fit M1 if used mainly for transactions or non-M1 M2 if used mainly as a store of value. Stablecoins are not currently included, and data availability, reporting, reserve double counting and global-versus-U.S. circulation remain unresolved.

## Why it matters

The framework highlights that statistical treatment depends on real economic use, not blockchain technology alone, and that globally circulating dollar stablecoins create a specific geographic measurement problem. The note explicitly reflects the authors' views and is not part of Federal Reserve policy deliberation. It announces no decision, timetable or methodology change, and it does not establish adoption, payment volume, regulatory approval or a new settlement rail.

## Key numbers

- **Potential stablecoin classification:** M1 for transaction use or non-M1 M2 for store-of-value use
- **Stablecoin reserve backing required by the GENIUS Act, as described in the note:** 1:1 reserve assets
- **Proposed OCC standard redemption period cited by the authors:** two business days

## Topics and entities

- Industry lane: Web3 & stablecoin payments
- Entities: Federal Reserve Board staff
- Web3 payments
- Payment infrastructure

## Evidence and credibility note

Official Federal Reserve FEDS Notes publication by Board staff. The page explicitly says the analysis reflects the authors' views and is not part of policy deliberation; the proposed framework is research, not a Federal Reserve decision or scheduled change to M1 or M2.

Date evidence: Federal Reserve FEDS Notes page dated September 4, 2026; no publication time is displayed

## First-party corroboration

No directly corresponding A1 company announcement is currently linked.

## Original-source traceback

[Open the original Federal Reserve Board report](https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/notes/feds-notes/new-forms-of-money-and-the-u-s-monetary-aggregates-20260904.html)

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This is a structured Payments Hot Markdown source summary derived from external reporting. Use the original link above to read the publisher's article; copyright remains with the original publisher.