US regulators failed to finalize implementing regulations by the GENIUS Act’s one-year deadline, issuing 10 proposed rules instead. US regulatory agencies missed Saturday’s rulemaking deadline under the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act, one year after the law was signed. While several regulatory agencies published proposed rules and collected public feedback during the past year, no final regulations were issued before the deadline. Those agencies include the Department of the Treasury, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the Federal Reserve Board, according to rulemaking trackers by law firm Chapman and crypto investment company Paradigm. Read more
A public comment letter argues that regulated stablecoin issuers need clearer compliance standards to avoid sanctions risks tied to secondary-market activity. Anchorage Digital, a federally chartered crypto bank and stablecoin infrastructure provider, has submitted a public comment letter supporting the US Treasury Department’s proposed Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and sanctions framework for the GENIUS Act, arguing that the rules largely strike the right balance between compliance and innovation. In a letter published Wednesday, Anchorage said the proposed framework appropriately places AML obligations on regulated stablecoin issuers while urging Treasury to clarify secondary-market sanctions liability, enterprise-wide AML programs and correspondent account requirements. Specifically, Anchorage argued that issuers should not face strict liability for failing to independently identify sanctioned users who transact on secondary markets through their smart contracts. Read more
The Hyperliquid Policy Center and Paradigm say the Treasury’s money-laundering rules for the GENIUS Act are too onerous for stablecoin issuers. The lobbying arm of crypto futures exchange Hyperliquid and venture capital firm Paradigm has urged the US Treasury to revise a proposed anti-money laundering and sanctions rule for stablecoin issuers. The Hyperliquid Policy Center and Paradigm said in a letter on Tuesday that some secondary market obligations should be clarified or narrowed “to avoid unintended consequences for permissionless blockchain infrastructure and the DeFi ecosystem.” The pair said they endorse the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network’s (FinCEN) approach of putting compliance obligations on the “primary market,” such as issuers who have customer information, and taking a “limited approach” to the secondary market, where issuers only see wallets and transactions. Read more
The proposed rule would direct payment stablecoin issuers to establish AML/CFT and sanctions compliance programs, and be able to “block, freeze, and reject” certain transactions. Payment stablecoin issuers in the United States will be required to implement a regime targeting illicit finance under the proposed framework for the GENIUS Act. In a Wednesday notice, the US Treasury Department said its Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) had issued a joint proposed rule to implement provisions of the GENIUS Act, signed into law in July 2025. The proposal would direct payment stablecoin issuers to establish and maintain an anti-money laundering (AML) and countering the financing of terrorism (CFT) program, maintain a sanctions compliance program, and have the ability to “block, freeze and reject” certain stablecoin transactions. Issuers would be treated as financial institutions for purposes of the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA). Read more
FDIC’s proposed rules providing insurance for corporate deposits of stablecoin issuers will not extend to the stablecoin holders, as it would conflict with the GENIUS Act’s text, the FDIC said. The US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has proposed new rules to regulate FDIC-supervised stablecoin issuers in accordance with the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act, which was signed into law nine months ago. In a statement on Tuesday, the FDIC said its board of directors voted to issue a proposal that would set reserve, redemption, capital, risk management and custody standards for stablecoin issuers and insured depository institutions under its supervision. The FDIC insures deposits at more than 4,000 financial institutions and supervises over 2,700 banks and savings associations to maintain stability in the US financial system. Read more
A proposed plan by the agency would ban “pass-through insurance“ for stablecoins by third parties in addition to the FDIC not insuring deposits under the law. Travis Hill, chair of the US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), confirmed that, in his opinion, a law passed in July would not give the agency the authority to guarantee stablecoin deposits. In remarks prepared for the American Bankers Association (ABA) Washington Summit on Wednesday, Hill said that under rules for the stablecoin payments bill, the GENIUS Act, the FDIC would not allow the government to guarantee deposits once the law was fully implemented. Similarly, stablecoin issuers would be prohibited from representing that the digital assets were FDIC insured, and a proposed plan would stop “pass-through insurance” by third parties. “If a payment stablecoin arrangement qualified for pass-through insurance, this would mean that if a bank holding the issuer’s reserves in a deposit account failed, the FDIC would insure the deposit account ...
The American Bankers Association pressed the OCC to delay new national trust bank charters for crypto and stablecoin firms until the GENIUS Act framework is fully in place. The American Bankers Association (ABA) is urging the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to slow its approval of national trust bank charters for crypto and stablecoin firms until the regulatory landscape under the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act is clearer. In a Wednesday comment letter on the OCC’s national bank chartering notice of proposed rulemaking, the trade group warned that recent and future applicants engaged in stablecoin and digital asset activities face still‑unsettled oversight from multiple federal and state regulators. The ABA said that the OCC should not advance applications where an institution’s full regulatory obligations, including under forthcoming GENIUS Act rulemakings, are not yet fully defined. Read more
Five New York officials reportedly said Tether and Circle had been incentivized to not work with law enforcement, allowing them to profit off crimes involving stablecoins. Several New York district attorneys have reportedly warned about the US federal stablecoin law, the GENIUS Act, claiming it fails to adequately address fraud. According to a Monday CNN report, New York Attorney General Letitia James and four district attorneys signed onto a letter saying that the GENIUS Act will “provide legal cover” for stablecoin issuers to potentially participate in fraud. The letter reportedly pointed a finger at issuers Tether and Circle, claiming that the companies have profited off crimes in stablecoin markets, specifically accusing Tether of only freezing some suspicious transactions in USDt (USDT). Read more
Banks argue that stablecoin rewards offered through exchanges exploit a GENIUS Act loophole, blurring the line between payment tokens and savings accounts. The GENIUS Act was designed to keep stablecoins as payment tools rather than savings products. As a result, it bans issuers from paying interest or yield to stablecoin holders. Community banks argue that a loophole exists because exchanges and affiliated partners can still offer rewards on stablecoin balances, even if the issuer itself does not pay yield. Smaller banks are more concerned than large banks because they rely heavily on local deposits. Any outflow of deposits could directly reduce lending to small businesses and households. Read more
The Community Bankers Council has asked the Senate for a crypto market structure bill that will ban exchanges and others offering interest on stablecoins. A group of US community bankers is pressuring Congress to change the GENIUS Act to close a supposed “loophole” that allows yield-generating stablecoins to undercut banks. The American Bankers Association’s Community Bankers Council said in a letter on Monday to the Senate that it must tighten the stablecoin regulating bill passed last year to stop stablecoin issuers from offering yield to tokenholders through third parties. “Some companies have exploited a perceived loophole allowing stablecoin issuers to indirectly fund payments to stablecoin holders through digital asset exchanges and other partners,” the group of more than 200 community bank leaders said. Read more
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong warned that reopening the GENIUS Act would cross a “red line,” accusing banks of lobbying Congress to block stablecoin rewards and limit competition. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said any attempt to reopen the GENIUS Act would cross a “red line,” accusing banks of using political pressure to block competition from stablecoins and fintech platforms. In a Sunday post on X, Armstrong said he was “impressed” banks could lobby Congress so openly without backlash, adding that Coinbase would continue pushing back on efforts to revise the law. “We won’t let anyone reopen GENIUS,” he wrote. “My prediction is the banks will actually flip and be lobbying FOR the ability to pay interest and yield on stablecoins in a few years, once they realize how big the opportunity is for them. So it’s 100% wasted effort on their part (in addition to being unethical),” Armstrong added. Read more
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s proposal outlines how banks could seek approval to issue payment stablecoins as US regulators move from legislation to rule-making. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) is moving forward with rule-making under the US GENIUS Act by proposing a framework for how regulated banks could apply to issue payment stablecoins, a key early step in implementing the law’s stablecoin provisions. In a 38-page document posted to the FDIC’s website, the agency detailed proposed approval requirements for the issuance of payment stablecoins by subsidiaries of FDIC-supervised institutions. As Bloomberg reported, the proposal is subject to a public consultation period before advancing to the next stage of the rulemaking process. Read more