The Fed conference crypto founders actually wanted to attend — here's what changed

Circle, Paxos, and Coinbase get direct Fed payment rail access without the full banking circus. No more "debanking" FUD, no more compliance theater with regional banks that hate crypto.

The guest list: Chainlink's Nazarov (powers 70% of DeFi), Circle's Tarbert (USDC issuer), Coinbase's Haas, Franklin Templeton's Johnson (already tokenized $360M government funds).

Waller killed the CBDC narrative. His "solution in search of a problem" stance hasn't changed, but now he's offering something better: private stablecoins backed by Fed accounts beat government digital dollars.

Three massive shifts:

• Regulatory clarity: Stablecoins are payment infrastructure, not securities
• Infrastructure access: Direct Fed rails for compliant crypto firms
• Competitive dynamics: Traditional banks adapt or get disintermediated

Implementation takes 6-12 months minimum. But the directional shift is undeniable, from resistance to active collaboration. Tokenized assets hit $185B in 2025, could reach $30T by 2030.

Source: full story and takeaways from Thesis_io