Florida stablecoin law is live: it licenses the issuer, not the business that gets paid — and the state wrote its own acceptance policy

What the Florida stablecoin law put in force on October 1, 2026

On Thursday, October 1, 2026, the core of Florida's payment stablecoin law took effect. The bill was CS/CS/HB 175, carried in the House by Representatives Barnaby and Giallombardo, among others, and in the Senate by Senator Burton. It passed 102–2 and 37–0 (see the Florida Senate's bill summary). The Governor approved it on June 26, 2026, and it is now Chapter 2026-176, Laws of Florida.

It is Florida's version of the state lane that the federal GENIUS Act (Pub. L. 119-27) leaves open for smaller issuers. In plain terms, the law does five things:

• It creates a license. A new Part V of chapter 560, "Payment Stablecoin Issuers" (ss. 560.501–560.506), says nobody may engage in the activity of a qualified payment stablecoin issuer in Florida unless the Office of Financial Regulation (OFR) has licensed them or they are exempt. Trust companies get a parallel certificate of approval (s. 658.997), and state-qualified issuers become a category of money services business.
• It exempts the federal and out-of-state lanes. Issuers approved by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency are exempt. So are issuers approved by another state for which Florida is only a "host state"; they must notify the OFR within 30 days of starting business here.
• It sets a prudential floor. Reserves must back the coins one-to-one, in cash, Federal Reserve balances, insured deposits, Treasuries with 93 days or less to maturity, overnight repos and government money market funds. Issuers must publish their redemption policy and every purchase and redemption fee, with at least 7 days' notice of changes. They must publish their reserve composition monthly, have a PCAOB-registered firm examine the month-end reserve report every month, and file a monthly CEO and CFO certification.
• It draws a line at $10 billion. A state-qualified issuer that reaches $10 billion outstanding must notify the OFR within 7 business days. Unless it gets a federal waiver, it must then move to joint federal-state supervision within 360 days, or stop issuing until it drops back below the threshold.
• It settles two status questions. A payment stablecoin that meets the part's requirements "is not a security" under Florida's securities law (chapter 517). Issuers may not pay holders interest or yield where federal law prohibits it, use names that suggest government backing, or tie stablecoin services to unrelated products.

The law also requires the OFR to get certification from the federal Stablecoin Certification Review Committee that Florida's regime is "substantially similar" to the GENIUS Act. The federal "broad-based principles" for that test were published in April. A state license only carries the federal weight it was built for once that certification comes through.

The second law: Florida will take stablecoins itself

On June 26 the Governor also approved a second bill, CS/CS/SB 1568, sponsored by Senator DiCeglie. It passed 34–0 and 108–3 and took effect on signing. It creates the Florida Stablecoin Pilot Program. According to the Senate's bill summary, the Department of Financial Services may accept stablecoins for government fees. Law-firm summaries of the act list licensing, registration, application, renewal and assessment fees.

The news isn't that a state agency will take stablecoins. It's the policy the Legislature wrote around them:

1. Accept by criteria, not by brand. A designated coin must comply with federal and state law, meet a minimum market capitalization, be fully backed one-to-one by reserve assets, and come from a permitted payment stablecoin issuer.
2. Convert on a schedule. Within a reasonable time of receiving a payment stablecoin, the department converts it to US currency and credits the right accounts in qualified depositories.
3. Keep costs down. The department must attempt to minimize the fees involved.
4. Keep the upside. Any yield earned on stablecoins is credited to the state.
5. Report every year. An annual report goes to the Governor, the Senate President and the House Speaker, the first by February 1, 2027.

That is a merchant acceptance policy written into statute. Most businesses that already take stablecoins don't have one this clear, and we'll come back to it below.

What the Florida stablecoin law does not do to a business that gets paid

Most coverage of October 1 led with the reserve rules. For a restaurant in Miami, a tour operator in Orlando or an exporter in Doral, the more useful reading is what the text leaves out.

• It doesn't license acceptance. The license in s. 560.501 attaches to "the activity of a qualified payment stablecoin issuer." Section 560.503 limits that activity to issuing, redeeming, managing reserves and activities that directly support them. Taking a stablecoin for a sale is none of those.
• It doesn't pick your coins. Part V regulates issuers established under state law. It doesn't tell a business which tokens it may take. That is being decided in the federal offer-and-sale rules (see our analysis of which stablecoins US merchants can accept) and in your own risk policy.
• It leaves self-custody alone. Three kinds of transaction are expressly "not regulated under this part": direct transfers between two individuals acting for themselves without an intermediary, an individual moving funds between their own US and foreign accounts at the same provider, and "any transaction by means of a software or hardware wallet that facilitates an individual's own custody."
• It doesn't change finality. A stablecoin payment confirmed on-chain is still final. There is no chargeback window to legislate away, because there never was one.

Whether your business needs a license for some other reason is a separate question, for example because you hold customer funds or move money on someone else's behalf. That falls under the rest of chapter 560 and federal law, and it belongs with your counsel. This law doesn't add an acceptance license on top.

Where it does touch a business: the off-ramp

The provision most likely to reach a Florida merchant sits in Section 2, not in Part V. Florida's Control of Money Laundering in Money Services Business Act (s. 560.123) now names payment stablecoins alongside currency, payment instruments and virtual currency. From October 1:

• A money services business must keep a record of every transaction in Florida that it knows involves a payment stablecoin worth more than $10,000.
• Several transactions made by or for one person that total more than $10,000 in a day count as one.
• An MSB may record a transaction of any size if it suspects the money comes from unlawful activity.
• Penalties for willful violations scale from a first-degree misdemeanor to felonies at $300, $20,000 and $100,000 over 12 months. Civil penalties reach the greater of the value involved or $25,000.

Those obligations fall on the MSB, not on you. But the MSB is your exchange, your off-ramp, your OTC desk. Expect more questions when you cash out a big week: where the funds came from, which invoices they match, who paid. A business that can answer in minutes gets its dollars sooner than one that needs weeks (more on this in our guide to the non-custodial stablecoin off-ramp).

The second touchpoint is quieter. A Florida-qualified stablecoin must publish its redemption fees with 7 days' notice, publish its reserves monthly and have its reserve report examined monthly. If a coin you hold carries that license, you can see the cost of leaving it before you need to, which is exactly what the state's own pilot is told to watch.

The dates a Florida business should keep

• June 26, 2026: both laws approved. The SB 1568 pilot took effect immediately.
• September 24, 2026: the Federal Reserve proposed its GENIUS rules for the issuers it supervises. The federal side is still moving.
• October 1, 2026: Part V licensing, the reserve rules and the money-laundering changes took effect.
• January 18, 2027: the latest date the GENIUS Act takes effect. It comes sooner if final federal rules are issued more than 120 days earlier (our GENIUS Act explainer covers what that means at checkout).
• February 1, 2027: first annual report on the state's stablecoin pilot.

Florida's pilot as a template: a five-line stablecoin acceptance policy

The Legislature wrote a better acceptance policy for a state agency than most businesses have for themselves. Adapted for a company that sells something:

1. Name the coins you accept, by criteria. Large, fully reserved, from an issuer you'd be comfortable holding overnight. In practice that usually means USDC and USDT on the networks your customers actually use.
2. Decide what you hold after the sale, and for how long. The state converts "within a reasonable time." Pick your own version: for example, auto-convert every incoming payment to USDC or USDT, then move funds to your off-ramp on a fixed schedule.
3. Keep fees down at both ends. Settle on low-fee networks such as Base, Polygon or Solana, and know your off-ramp's fee before you need it.
4. Record every payment. Invoice, amount, network, transaction hash, timestamp and customer. That is your answer when your MSB applies the $10,000 rule.
5. Review once a year. The state reports annually, and so should you: volume, cost per transaction compared with cards, and any incidents.

What it means for different Florida businesses

Florida's mix of tourism, Latin American trade and a large Spanish-speaking customer base means stablecoins already show up at real counters and on real invoices. Here is how the new rules read for five common cases:

• A restaurant or café in Miami serving tourists and Latin American customers who hold USDT or USDC. Use the Payzum POS: a fresh QR code for each sale, any phone works as a terminal, cashiers log in with a PIN, and you get analytics per cashier and terminal. There are no card-network fees on those sales and no chargebacks, and each day ends in the asset you chose (see accepting crypto in a restaurant).
• A vacation rental or tour operator around Orlando taking deposits from guests abroad. Send a payment link or use hosted checkout. The deposit confirms in seconds and lands in your wallet, with no 120-day dispute window hanging over a booking.
• An exporter or freight forwarder in Doral invoicing buyers in Latin America. Issue invoices with expiry and overpayment detection, one per shipment. When a $40,000 week crosses your off-ramp's $10,000 line, the invoice-to-transaction record is ready.
• A software company in Tampa or Miami selling API access. With x402, AI agents pay in USDC on Base for each call. Payzum sits in front of your API as a proxy, configured with your existing endpoint and key, and payment is settled through an external facilitator (currently Coinbase's). See x402 for agents.
• A business paying contractors or suppliers abroad. Send EVM stablecoin payouts on Polygon, Arbitrum, Optimism, Base, BNB Chain or Avalanche in one batch, instead of one wire at a time.

Where Payzum fits: acceptance without a processor balance

Payzum is a non-custodial, crypto-only payment processor. Payments settle directly to a wallet you control, and Payzum never holds, pools or controls the funds. Payzum doesn't issue a stablecoin, doesn't redeem one and doesn't pay dollars out to a bank account. You keep your own off-ramp and choose when to use it.

• Accept what customers hold. USDC, USDT and other crypto across Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Polygon, Base, Arbitrum, Optimism, BNB Chain and Avalanche.
• Choose what you end up holding. Optional auto-conversion to USDC or USDT means your settlement asset is a decision, not an accident.
• Keep a record of every payment. Signed webhooks, a REST API and a full audit log. Invoices carry expiry and overpayment detection.
• No chargebacks. An on-chain payment confirmed to your wallet is final. Confirmation typically takes about 0.4 seconds on Solana and about 2 seconds on Base and Polygon.

Non-custodial settlement doesn't replace your compliance. You are still responsible for your own obligations, and an issuer can still freeze an address in any wallet. What it removes is a processor balance that someone else can hold while your off-ramp asks its questions.

How it works, step by step

1. Connect your wallet. Self-custody, hardware or multisig, whatever your treasury policy needs. Payzum settles into it and never holds the keys.
2. Write your policy into settings. Choose the networks and stablecoins you accept, and whether incoming payments auto-convert to USDC or USDT.
3. Turn on the ways you charge. Online, use hosted checkout, payment links and buttons, invoices, subscriptions or drop-in plugins for WooCommerce, Shopify, Magento 2, PrestaShop and others. In store, use the POS with a fresh QR code for each sale. For APIs, use x402.
4. Get paid and reconcile. The chain confirms in seconds, signed webhooks push each payment into your systems, and the audit log keeps the trail your off-ramp will ask for.

Florida's own pilot vs a Florida business on Payzum

Fair objections

"If the law doesn't license acceptance, why should a merchant care?"

Because the coins and exits around you are the ones being licensed. Licensing changes, over time, which tokens your customers hold and what your off-ramp asks you. And because the state just made itself a stablecoin payee and wrote down how it plans to behave as one. That is a useful benchmark for your own policy.

"Do I have to accept only Florida-licensed stablecoins?"

Part V doesn't say that. It regulates issuers, not which coins a business may take. Which coins you accept is a risk decision for you, and the federal offer-and-sale rules are where coin eligibility in the US is being settled. Ask your counsel if your model goes beyond selling your own goods or services.

"Doesn't the $10,000 record make stablecoins as painful as cash?"

It's the same threshold Florida already applied to currency and virtual currency at money services businesses. The difference is the trail: an on-chain payment already carries a public, timestamped record. If you log invoice-to-transaction as you go, the answer takes minutes.