Field Notes
Separating operating float from strategic stablecoin reserves
Why wallet labels alone fail, and how finance desks can document the split before setting floors.
Many desks discover that every stablecoin balance sits under one internal label: “crypto treasury.” That label hides whether a unit of capital is meant to pay suppliers next week or to sit as a multi-month buffer.
In reserve planning sessions we ask for three lists: known outflows in the next thirty days, discretionary uses that could wait ninety days, and balances with no assigned purpose. The third list is usually where strategic reserves and forgotten float collide.
Documenting the split does not require new custody accounts on day one. It requires written tags your finance pack will honour, and a rule for how unlabeled balances are treated until someone claims them. Only after that split do reserve floors become meaningful numbers rather than aspirations.