“Skinny Bill.” Americans want to connect crypto companies to the central bank

Non-bank companies, including those in the crypto-asset industry, will gain access to special accounts at the Fed. This idea, called “skinny account”, was presented by one of the governors of the Federal Reserve System. A few years ago this would have been unthinkable.

For decades, accounts maintained at the central bank were reserved for a small group of financial institutions and, in some countries, the public sector. Their unique feature is the ability to make immediate settlements using the highest power money – issued by the central bank, the most liquid and safest. Granting access to this circle usually means that the candidate institution plays an important role in the circulation of money.

On October 21, 2025, one of the governors of the Federal Reserve System, Christopher Waller, presented the idea of ​​the so-called “lean account” at the Fed. The idea is to create a simplified version master account (i.e. an account at the central bank) for entities from the crypto-asset, DeFi and payment industries. These non-bank institutions currently have to use the intermediation of banks to have access to the American equivalent of the Polish Sorbnet – Fedwire. This is the Instant Gross Settlement System (RTGS), a real-time mechanism for transferring funds between accounts at the central bank.

Waller, chairman of the Fed's Payments, Clearing and Settlement Committee, indicated that these types of accounts would carry looser entry requirements than full accounts. Restrictions are also expected to minimize systemic risk, including balance limits and no interest charges. Non-bank entities would also be ineligible for intraday and discount credit facilities. If the lean account balance dropped to zero, pending payments would be rejected.

Christopher Waller emphasized that the concept remains in its early stages and indicated that the Fed is interested in hearing from stakeholders about the benefits and drawbacks of the idea.

Let us recall that a similar solution was envisaged in the European Union, where the symbolic moment was April 9 this year. The monopoly of banks in access to payment systems has been broken, but this does not cover (for now) service providers related to cryptoassets. The United States is taking a similar approach, but with an important difference, integrating a sector that has previously been treated with suspicion. This is another signal of the emergence of two opposing types of central bank attitude towards the evolution of money. In Europe, the ECB is focusing on an active role (including the issuance of CBDC), while in the USA the private sector is to play a leading role.

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