U.S. regulators miss GENIUS Act deadline for stablecoin rules

On July 18, 2026, U.S. regulators missed the GENIUS Act one-year deadline and did not issue final federal rules for payment stablecoins. Agencies that published proposed rules over the past year include the Treasury Department, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Federal Reserve Board.

The GENIUS Act was signed into law on July 18, 2025. Federal regulators issued 10 notices of proposed rulemaking during the first year but did not complete the standard rulemaking process required to produce final implementing rules.

The Treasury published four proposals covering standards to determine whether state stablecoin regimes match the federal framework, registration rules for foreign stablecoin issuers and anti-money-laundering requirements. The OCC issued two proposals on approval requirements and supervisory standards for nationally chartered payment stablecoin issuers. The FDIC proposed supervisory expectations and operational rules for FDIC-covered institutions that issue payment stablecoins, including reserve management. The NCUA proposed rules to allow federally insured credit unions to participate in stablecoin issuance. The Federal Reserve, OCC and FDIC jointly proposed an interagency rule to align supervisory expectations across the federal banking regulators.

Agencies opened public comment periods on the proposals but had not issued final rules by the one-year cutoff, leaving several implementation questions unresolved for firms that issue or plan to issue payment stablecoins. Missing the deadline does not invalidate the GENIUS Act.

Industry responses included a renewed call from Anchorage Digital for Congress to pass the Digital Asset Market CLARITY Act. Anchorage wrote: “On GENIUS’ one-year anniversary, we’re renewing our call for Congress to pass the CLARITY Act and extend the clear market-structure rules that worked for stablecoins to the broader digital asset economy.” On July 13, the American Bankers Association and state banking groups requested clearer language on stablecoin yield provisions and asked that rules prevent payment stablecoins from acting as deposit substitutes. On June 26, Galaxy Digital reduced its odds that the CLARITY Act would become law in 2026 to 50%, citing the lack of a single Senate text and a narrow legislative calendar.

As of July 18, 2026, final implementing rules required by the GENIUS Act have not been issued. The agencies retain authority to complete the pending rulemakings and Congress may consider related legislation.