This article was first published on The Bit Journal.
Earlier in the year, President Donald Trump announced a plan to modernize America’s old financial system by adding new crypto-native settlement infrastructure, what is referred to as the crypto payment rails agenda.
At the heart of it is the GENIUS Act (Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins), signed into law on July 18 2025.
The Act allows banks and payment companies to issue fully-backed dollar stablecoins, remove central-bank digital currency (CBDC) risk, and shift the back-end of payments onto new rails.
While policy is moving, full replacement of legacy systems with crypto payment rails remains a work in progress.
The legislative and regulatory milestones, infrastructure developments, interplay with legacy systems, and progress to date are what to watch as the agenda aims to go live by 2028.
Regulatory Milestones for Crypto Payment Rails
The foundation of the crypto payment rails agenda is the GENIUS Act. This legislation established standards for payment stablecoins: requiring 100% reserve backing in liquid assets like U.S. Treasuries, monthly public disclosures of reserves and federal-state licensing equivalence.
Speaking in his promise to the industry, President Trump said;
“Many Americans are unaware that behind the scenes, the technical backbone of the financial system is decades out of date[…] but payments and money transfers are costly and take days or even weeks to clear.
Under this bill, the entire ancient system will be eligible for a 21st-century upgrade using the state-of-the-art crypto technology[…]
This will increase demand for US treasuries, lower interest rates and secure the dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency for generations to come.”
On September 18 2025, the U.S. Department of the Treasury issued an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) to solicit public comment on implementing GENIUS.
Importantly, Section 3(b) of the Act states that starting July 18 2028, no digital-asset service provider may offer or sell a payment-stablecoin in the U.S. unless issued by a Permitted Payment Stablecoin Issuer (PPSI).
Trump’s administration also issued an executive order banning CBDC, positioning stablecoins and tokenized deposits instead as the foundational rails.
The crypto payment rails agenda is being driven from the regulatory side, to establish new rails before fully decommissioning old ones.
Infrastructure and Crypto Payment Rails
The crypto payment rails agenda isn’t just policy; it’s being backed by infrastructure. The legacy rails, such as FedNow, Real-Time Payments (RTP), and SWIFT GPI, seem to be scaling.
FedNow reportedly settled $307 billion in Q3 2025 across 2.5 million payments. The crypto rails, especially stablecoins and tokenized deposits, are being integrated by major networks.
For example, Visa expanded stable-coin settlement across multiple chains and currencies, and Mastercard opened up end-to-end stable-coin checkout capability.
These developments align with Trump’s crypto payment rails agenda by reducing friction between fiat payments and blockchain infrastructure.
But as industry research notes, the competitive wedge for crypto rails is 24/7 uptime, weekend and cross-border settlement, programmability and capital efficiency; not raw domestic speed.
So, the agenda isn’t about blowing up legacy systems immediately; it’s about layering new rails that can eventually outperform them.
What Progress Looks Like Under the Crypto Payment Rails Agenda
By November 2025, here’s what is seen:
The Treasury’s ANPRM outlines 58 questions on stable-coin issuance, foreign issuer regimes, reserve composition and enforcement.
Banks got guidance from the OCC on custody and payment-DLT, which is a needed channel for the rails upgrade.
Payment processors and infrastructure firms via pilot stable-coin settlement are preparing for real-economy adoption.
The crypto payment rails agenda’s plan to redirect stablecoin reserve demand into US Treasuries is now documented. Fed governor said stable-coin issuers will hold substantial Treasury securities. All this means the building blocks of crypto payment rails are being laid, but full replacement is still ahead.
Interaction with Legacy Payment Systems: Transition, Not Replacement
While the crypto payment rails agenda is modernizing payments, legacy rails are still active and competitive.
FedNow, RTP and SWIFT GPI are getting better and better, narrowing the performance gap. So the most likely outcome is still multi-rail architecture, where crypto rails and traditional rails coexist.
In this scenario, stablecoin and tokenized-deposit rails handle settlement behind the scenes, while cards and bank transfers are the consumer interface.
As one industry review said: the most realistic outcome is not a clean swap of one system for another, but a multi-rail stack … stable-coins and tokenized deposits handle settlement in the background while cards and instant bank transfers remain the consumer touch-points.
This is what the crypto payment rails agenda really means: infrastructure rewiring, not wholesale replacement.
What to Watch
Under the crypto payment rails agenda, progress will be measured. These include: number of banks approved as PPSIs or licensed stable-coin issuers, volume of settlement on stable-coin rails, especially weekend/cross-border flows, cost and speed of crypto rails vs legacy rails, and reserve holdings of stable-coin issuers in US Treasuries.
Sources found Tether’s Treasury-bill holdings reduced one-month yields by around 24 basis points, showing macro-scale spillovers. As one Treasury official said:
“Only when bank capital and liquidity standards are finalized, and acquirer dashboards show stable-coins carrying a meaningful share of settlement, will the crypto payment rails agenda move from motion to measurable adoption.”
Timing will be determined by execution, which is currently pointing to 2026-2028 for the rails to shift.
Conclusion
The crypto payment rails agenda under President Trump sets a big vision: to upgrade the US payments infrastructure by layering stablecoin and tokenized-deposit rails, protect the dollar’s reserve status, and modernise settlement behind the scenes.
The GENIUS Act and related rule-making is progress, pilot infrastructure and network integrations are underway.
However, the agenda is still a work in progress: legacy rails are still running, and full replacement is not imminent.
The takeaway is that the industry is seeing the beginning of a notable payments-stack evolution. The crypto payment rails are turning on but the “21st century” system Trump promised is still being built.
Glossary
Crypto payment rails: Blockchain-based infrastructure such as stablecoins, tokenized deposits, DLT payments, layered beneath or replacing traditional payment systems.
Stablecoin: A digital token pegged to a fiat currency like the USD and backed by liquid assets or Treasuries, used for payments and settlement.
PPSI (Permitted Payment Stable-coin Issuer): Under the GENIUS Act, an entity licensed to issue payment-stablecoins in the US after rule-making becomes final.
Tokenized deposit: A digital representation of bank deposit liabilities that can be transferred on-chain and settled in real time.
Settlement rail: The system or infrastructure where the actual value transfer or clearing is finalized between parties (e.g., Fed wires, blockchain netting).
Frequently Asked Questions About Crypto Payment Rails
What are the crypto payment rails?
They are blockchain-based settlement systems using stablecoins or tokenized deposits that aim to handle value transfers in real time across borders and time zones, as the legacy payment rails scale up.
What did the GENIUS Act do?
It established the first federal framework in the US for payment stablecoins, requiring 100 % reserve backing, monthly disclosures, and licensing; it also sets a prohibition date (July 18, 2028) when non-PPSIs cannot offer payment stablecoins.
Will legacy systems like FedNow and SWIFT be turned off?
No. The current trajectory is multi-rail: crypto rails will run alongside legacy rails, not replace them. The transition under the crypto payment rails agenda is gradual.
When will it be fully on?
Regulatory and infrastructure milestones are set to be visibly seen from 2026-2028 but full adoption in consumer payments may be beyond that.
How does this relate to the US dollar’s reserve status?
Payment-stablecoin issuers will be required to hold short-dated US Treasuries so demand for US debt and the dollar’s global role is reinforced.
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