The GENIUS Act — the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act (S. 1582) — is the first US federal law written specifically for payment stablecoins: tokens designed to hold a stable value against the dollar and be used for payments and settlement. The House passed it on 17 July 2025 and it was signed into law the following day.
What the law does
- Who may issue. Payment stablecoins offered to US users must come from a permitted issuer — a subsidiary of an insured bank, a federally qualified non-bank issuer, or a state-qualified issuer under a state regime judged comparable to the federal one.
- Reserves. Issuers must hold reserves backing their outstanding stablecoins at least one-for-one, in high-quality liquid assets such as US dollars, deposits and short-dated US Treasury bills, and publish regular reports on the reserve composition.
- Status of the tokens. Payment stablecoins that meet the law's requirements are treated as neither securities nor commodities for federal securities and commodities law.
- Holders in insolvency. Stablecoin holders get priority claims on the reserves if an issuer fails.
- Supervision. Federal and state regulators share oversight, with rulemaking to fill in the details.
Timing
The law does not take full effect on signing. It becomes effective on the earlier of 18 months after enactment — 18 January 2027 — or 120 days after regulators issue final implementing rules. Through 2026 the implementing rules moved through proposal and public comment: our coverage in August 2026 reported the US Treasury proposing rules on when stablecoin issuers need a US licence, with a 60-day comment period, while the January 2027 date held.
How it relates to other rules
The GENIUS Act covers stablecoins only. The broader question of how other crypto-assets are classified and which US regulator oversees their markets is the subject of separate market-structure legislation, most prominently the CLARITY Act. In the EU, the comparable stablecoin rules sit inside MiCA.
In MoonWire analysis
Our stablecoin hub and regulation hub track GENIUS Act rulemaking as it is reported, dated so readers can see what was known when.