The US Department of the Treasury has issued a notice of proposed rulemaking on the implementation of the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act, the legislation signed into law last year to establish the first federal framework for payment stablecoins in the United States.

The Act's core requirements are set in statute: issuers must back payment stablecoins one-for-one with high-quality liquid assets such as cash and short-term Treasury securities, publish monthly reserve disclosures certified by their chief executive and chief financial officers, and refrain from paying interest to stablecoin holders. The proposed rules will shape how those obligations are implemented in practice.

In a Monday notice, the Treasury Department said it was opening the proposed rule to public comment ahead of the GENIUS Act's implementation in January 2027. Under the terms of the bill, the stablecoin law was scheduled to go into effect either 120 days after agencies finalize their rules or 18 months after it was passed in July 2025, making its effective date Jan. 18, 2027.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the department "welcomes input from stakeholders as [it works] to provide the regulatory certainty businesses need to innovate and grow in America."

Treasury is not the only agency working on the rollout, a reflection of the Act's division of supervisory duties among regulators depending on an issuer's charter type. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the Federal Reserve Board have also issued notices of proposed rules in 2026 related to the implementation of GENIUS. However, all of the departments reportedly missed the 120-day deadline in July to finalize regulations before January, a sign that the GENIUS Act could go into effect without clear guidance in place.

According to Treasury, once the GENIUS Act takes effect, an entity generally may not "issue a payment stablecoin" in the US without a related federal or state license. The Act lets issuers choose between federal approval and state regimes with substantially similar requirements, with state-regulated issuers below a $10 billion issuance threshold permitted to remain under state oversight. Public comment on the department's proposed rules is open for 60 days following publication in the Federal Register.

US-UK regulators discuss GENIUS progress

The rulemaking effort has also drawn international attention. In July, the UK-US Financial Regulatory Working Group met in London to discuss cooperation between the two countries' financial agencies, including implementation of the GENIUS Act.

UK regulators, including the Financial Conduct Authority and the Bank of England, have been consulting on rules for fiat-backed stablecoins under powers granted by the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023. Although UK authorities have taken steps to address stablecoin regulation, the pending implementation of GENIUS has some crypto industry insiders arguing that the country is falling behind the US.