GENIUS Act anniversary highlights stablecoin growth as U.S. rulemaking lags

One year after President Donald Trump signed the GENIUS Act into law on July 18, 2025, and with the statute enacted as Public Law 119-27, key U.S. stablecoin rules remain unfinished even though the law established a federal framework for payment stablecoins. Agencies including the OCC, Federal Reserve, FDIC and Treasury Department were required to finalize implementing regulations by July 18, 2026, but several core standards remain under review, underscoring that a law on the books is not yet a fully operational regulatory regime. The unfinished rules cover issuer reserves, capital requirements, liquidity, custody, risk management and state-level regulatory designations. Customer identification proposals remain open until August 21, 2026, while the FDIC’s anti-money laundering consultation runs through August 4, leaving issuers and banks preparing for a framework whose operating details are still incomplete even as agencies aim to enforce the law by January 18, 2027. Even so, the stablecoin sector has continued to expand to more than $310 billion, and the law has already helped encourage institutional activity from firms such as BlackRock, JPMorgan and Visa. The anniversary has also fed into the wider debate over U.S. digital-asset legislation, with Senator Cynthia Lummis calling the GENIUS Act “an important first step” and urging support for the CLARITY Act.