US Federal Reserve to hold conference with focus on stablecoins, tokenization. The conference will take place Oct. 21 and bring together a range of parties to discuss how to innovate and improve the payments system.

The Federal Reserve Board announced it will host a Payments Innovation Conference on October 21, 2025, at its Washington, D.C. headquarters, with a strong focus on stablecoins, tokenization, and related emerging technologies in payments. The event is designed as a public, livestreamed conference that convenes industry participants, researchers, and other stakeholders to examine how technological change is reshaping the U.S. payments system and to discuss ways to further improve its safety and efficiency. According to the Fed’s announcement and subsequent conference materials, the agenda centers on several key themes: the convergence of traditional and decentralized finance; emerging stablecoin use cases and business models; the tokenization of financial products and services; and the intersection of artificial intelligence and payments. Governor Christopher J. Waller, who initiated the conference, framed it in his opening remarks as an effort to understand how innovations originating in the DeFi and crypto sectors—such as stablecoins and tokenized assets built on distributed ledger technology—are entering the mainstream payments ecosystem, and how the Fed should respond in its roles as infrastructure operator, regulator, and convener. The conference brings together around 100 private-sector innovators and other experts, underscoring that the Fed is engaging directly with market participants as it conducts hands‑on research into tokenization, smart contracts, and AI for potential application in its own payment systems. The event matters because it signals a more structured and public engagement by the U.S. central bank with crypto-linked payment instruments and tokenized financial products, at a time when private stablecoins and tokenization initiatives are growing in scale and policy relevance. By foregrounding stablecoin use cases, DeFi–TradFi convergence, and AI in payments, the Fed is positioning itself to influence how these technologies are integrated into the regulated financial system, including potential changes to access to Fed payment services and the design of future payment infrastructure.

✨ AI-generated background, compiled from web sources — not editorial content.

More coverage

• Third Conference on Stablecoins and Tokenization (bostonfed.org)
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• US FEDERAL RESERVE ANNOUNCES OCT 21 CONFERENCE ... (x.com)
• Opening remarks by Governor Waller at the Payments Innovation ... (federalreserve.gov)
• Payments Innovation Conference - Federal Reserve Board (federalreserve.gov)

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