Florida approved two laws on June 26 that connect payment-stablecoin regulation with a practical government payment use case. One establishes state oversight for qualified issuers; the other creates a voluntary pilot through which the Department of Financial Services may accept qualifying stablecoins for regulatory and other fees.
Governor Ron DeSantis approved HB 175 and SB 1568 on June 26, according to the Florida Senate’s bill records. Together, the measures create a state pathway for supervising payment-stablecoin issuers and authorize the department to test stablecoins as a payment method without treating every digital asset as acceptable for state obligations.
The package is significant for payment providers because it joins licensing, reserve standards, wallet operations and treasury conversion in one state-level framework. It does not, however, switch on a general-purpose crypto checkout service across Florida government. The pilot remains voluntary, and the department must designate eligible stablecoins and work only with permitted issuers.
Issuer oversight moves into Florida’s financial code
HB 175 brings payment-stablecoin activity under the Office of Financial Regulation. The law requires a business acting as a qualified payment-stablecoin issuer to obtain the appropriate state authorization or qualify for an exemption. It also provides a certificate-of-approval route for eligible trust companies.
The measure is designed to operate alongside the federal GENIUS Act rather than as a separate definition of unregulated digital money. Its framework distinguishes payment stablecoins used for payment or settlement from bank deposits and securities, and gives the state regulator supervisory and enforcement responsibilities for issuers operating through Florida’s state-qualified route.
For prospective issuers, the operational consequence is that state authorization is more than a corporate registration. The law adds application, certification, examination and compliance requirements, while recognizing federal supervision and out-of-state state-qualified issuers under specified conditions. That structure may matter to banks, trust companies and nonbank issuers deciding whether Florida should be their state regulatory home.
The pilot targets fees, refunds and reimbursements
SB 1568 establishes the Florida Stablecoin Pilot Program within the Department of Financial Services. The department may accept designated payment stablecoins for licensing, registration, certification, assessment, application, renewal and other fees that it administers. Applicants, licensees and other participants choose whether to use the option.
The law also permits refunds, reimbursements and similar disbursements in stablecoins when a recipient elects that method and supplies a compatible wallet address. The department may buy stablecoins needed for those payments and may hold a limited operational balance. If a token does not earn interest or yield, holdings are capped at the amount estimated for disbursements over a rolling 30-day period; any yield earned must benefit the state.
Incoming payments are not intended to leave state accounts exposed indefinitely to token risk. The department must convert received stablecoins into US currency within a reasonable time and credit the account that would have received a conventional payment. It must also try to minimize network and exchange fees when choosing the conversion time.
Token eligibility narrows the field
The pilot does not authorize the department to accept any cryptocurrency. A designated stablecoin must have averaged at least $1 billion in market capitalization over the preceding 12 months, be redeemable one-for-one for US dollars and be issued by a permitted payment-stablecoin issuer.
Reserve assets must back the token on a one-to-one basis and are limited to US currency, demand deposits at insured depository institutions, short-dated US Treasury bills with no more than 93 days remaining, or reverse-repurchase agreements collateralized by those bills. The department may not begin the authorized activities if neither federal nor state regulators have approved a qualifying issuer.
Those constraints turn issuer status and reserve composition into payment-acceptance controls. A token’s liquidity or market popularity alone is insufficient. For processors or exchange platforms that may support the program, eligibility will depend on both the asset and the regulated entity behind it.
Implementation will determine the payment experience
The law leaves important operational work to the Department of Financial Services. It must provide wallet addresses to participants, manage conversion and public-funds safeguards, and may examine issuers to verify backing, redeemability, fraud controls and dispute-resolution standards. For state-qualified issuers, it must coordinate with the Office of Financial Regulation to avoid duplicative supervision.
The first annual report is due February 1, 2027. It must cover transaction volume, cost savings, security incidents, compliance, economic effects, fraud and disputes, and may recommend expansion or termination. That reporting requirement gives the pilot a measurable evaluation framework rather than assuming that blockchain settlement will automatically reduce cost or friction.
For the payments industry, the immediate change is legal authorization and regulatory structure, not proven adoption. Merchant-style acceptance will depend on the department’s rules, asset designations, issuer approvals, wallet implementation and conversion process. The laws nevertheless provide a concrete test of how a state can combine stablecoin supervision with limited public-sector payment acceptance.