Commission hears pitches from Fortress and Hedera on stablecoins, consumer protections and state options

The Commission to Study (stable tokens and real asset tokenization, blockchain‑based trust) on Wednesday heard two hour‑long presentations about stablecoins and tokenization and then questioned presenters about consumer protections, recovery procedures and how a state might capture revenue if it uses or issues stable tokens.

Noah Herman, chief strategy officer at Fortress Global, framed stablecoins as a tool to move dollars on digital rails with lower cost and higher speed than traditional payment systems. "Stablecoins represent, a an asset that can still operate on a protocol, but it doesn't suffer from that volatility," Herman said, summarizing why treasurers and large corporates are testing the technology. He described custody options — qualified custody through regulated custodians, managed custody and self‑custody — and urged state offices to consider how token operations would integrate with existing ERP systems so treasurers can "see all of my dollars" in one place.

Herman said states face choices ranging from simply partnering with an existing issuer ("go to Circle or Tether and mint a dollar") to taking a long path toward a state‑issued token like Wyoming's model. He warned of tradeoffs: ease and low technical burden for a…