Fintech support and updates to rules are a key part of the Trump Administration’s policy initiatives. Recently, the White House posted an Executive Order aimed at supporting improvements in Fintech. Digital services are quickly becoming the norm, and regulations and laws need to keep pace.
At the end of 2025, the US Federal Reserve updated the FedNow transaction limit to $10 million. This was due to increased demand from businesses. At launch, the limit was up to $500,000. In mid 2025, the limit was $1 million, which was bumped up to $10 million by November.
FedNow usage has grown dramatically, booking 8.41 million transactions in 2025, delivering an annual growth rate of 2124%. In Q1 of 2026, 2.73 million transactions were reported with $271 billion in value.
The average transaction value of FedNow has risen significantly, with over 1500 participating financial firms using the service.
The growth of FedNow is being boosted by higher transaction limits. Value moves in seconds, 24/7 – unlike costly wires or even slower, ACH transfers.
Dave Scola, US CEO at Form3, says that instant payments are becoming table stakes in the US, and the increase to $10 million is a “pivotal moment” in making these rails available for high-value use cases.
“It’s no surprise, therefore, that Fintechs are wanting in. But the notion of framing this debate as banks vs Fintechs is misleading. Long-established PSPs working with traditional payment flows have already demonstrated their value to the payment environment, and for the most part, with comparable levels of control and oversight to banks. Innovation in financial services is essential, and crypto is bringing genuinely new functionality and possibilities to the market, from programmable value transfer to new models of liquidity and settlement,” says Scola.
Scola adds that if firms seek banking permissions, a “level playing field and proportionate supervision are what ultimately sustain confidence in the financial system while enabling innovation to scale responsibly.”
He anticipates a wider range of participants in the payments system that will benefit from secure, scalable and always available payments.
