A Year After US GENIUS Act, Stablecoin Rulebook Still Incomplete
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The GENIUS Act, the first US law to provide a legal framework for stablecoin regulation, has been in effect for a year. The detailed rules needed to put it into practice, however, are still unfinished.
CoinDesk reported on July 19 that the GENIUS Act, signed by President Donald Trump last year, was the first federal law in US history to directly address digital assets, or cryptocurrencies. It set out broad standards for reserve management, governance and operations for stablecoin issuers. Drafting the finer rules was left to regulators including the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., and those provisions have yet to be completed.
A year later, the agencies are circulating draft rules and collecting feedback. The FDIC released 144 questions several months ago on custody, capital and liquidity standards tied to oversight of stablecoin issuers. The OCC published its own interpretation in February. Regulators have also proposed requiring stablecoin issuers to comply with know-your-customer obligations similar to those imposed on traditional financial firms. Final rules are still months away.
Jihoon Kim, chief executive officer of the Crypto Council for Innovation, wrote in an emailed statement that passage of the GENIUS Act was a historic moment. A year later, institutions, companies and innovators are operating on a clearer foundation, he added, and stablecoins are rapidly moving into the mainstream.
Meanwhile, talks on the Clarity Act, which would govern the broader digital-asset market, remain deadlocked. Democrats and Republicans have yet to agree on ethics provisions that would limit crypto-related profits by senior public officials. Senator Elizabeth Warren said Trump's 2025 disclosure showed that he earned more than $1.4 billion from various crypto businesses, and called on him to voluntarily submit a financial disclosure for the first half of 2026.
Representative Bryan Steil, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee's digital assets subcommittee, said in opening remarks at a subcommittee hearing that the goal was clear: replace regulation by enforcement with clear rules for digital assets.
