One Year On, US Stablecoin Rules Under GENIUS Act Are Still Incomplete

GENIUS Act set the framework

The GENIUS Act marked what has been described as a historic step for the US stablecoin sector, establishing the first formal legal foundation for regulation in this area. According to Jihoon Kim of the Crypto Council for Innovation, the law has given firms a clearer basis for operating, even if the regulatory system around it remains incomplete.

That gap matters because the statute created the structure, but agencies still need to define how major requirements will work in practice. One year after the law took effect, those agency rules are still being drafted.

Draft rules still under review

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency have both released draft rules tied to the law’s implementation. Those proposals address several core areas for stablecoin oversight, including custody, capital, liquidity, and know-your-customer standards.

Regulators are still collecting feedback on those proposals, and final adoption is not expected immediately. The source article says completion remains months away, indicating that the US stablecoin regime is still in a transitional phase despite the law already being in force.

One notable step came in February, when the OCC published an interpretive proposal as part of the ongoing effort to clarify how the framework should be applied. Regulators have also proposed that stablecoin issuers should face KYC obligations similar to those imposed on traditional financial institutions.

Broader crypto legislation remains stalled

While stablecoin-specific rules continue moving through the regulatory process, legislation aimed at the wider digital-asset market has not advanced in the same way. Debate around the Clarity Act, which is meant to address the broader crypto sector, remains stuck.

The reported obstacle is political disagreement over ethics provisions. In particular, lawmakers have not reached agreement on limits related to crypto-linked income for senior public officials. That dispute has left the Clarity Act deadlocked, even as agencies continue work on narrower stablecoin rules.

Unfinished picture for the sector

The result is a mixed regulatory picture in the United States. Stablecoins now have a legal framework in place under the GENIUS Act, and agencies have begun building out the standards needed to enforce it. But the final rules on custody, capital, liquidity, and compliance are still pending, and broader market legislation remains unresolved.

For now, the US digital-asset sector is operating between enacted law and unfinished implementation: stablecoin oversight is more defined than it was before the GENIUS Act, but the detailed requirements and the wider legislative agenda are still not settled.