US government debt is one of the easiest assets in the world to borrow against, which lets financial companies get cash without giving up their investments for good.

Washington is rewriting the rules for that borrowing, and the result will reach crypto through the companies that keep Treasury securities behind their dollar tokens.

The SEC wants more Treasury transactions to pass through a central clearinghouse, an institution that becomes the buyer to each seller and the seller to each buyer.

If one trading company fails, the other side can look to the clearinghouse to complete the covered trade, under its rules, instead of trying to recover everything from the failed company itself.

Providing that kind of protection takes a lot of money, so the new system will also affect what companies pay to trade and borrow. Stablecoin issuers depend on those services when they need to convert reserve assets into dollars for customers, so the cost and availability of Treasury trading affect how well their tokens work.

The SEC's deadlines are Dec. 31 for eligible outright purchases and sales of Treasuries, followed by June 30, 2027, for eligible repurchase agreements, known as repos. Commissioner Mark Uyeda said on Sept. 22 that the agency didn't currently intend to extend them.

These requirements cover specified trades involving clearing members, rather than every purchase of a Treasury by anyone who owns one.

Suppose an investment fund owns Treasury securities but needs dollars today, before the government is due to repay it. The fund could sell some of those securities, or it could use a repo: sell them now with an agreement to buy them back on a set date, often the next day, for a slightly higher price.

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