The Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act (GENIUS Act) is a US Federal law aimed to provide regulations for the payment of Stablecoins, and for other purposes. The Bill was introduced by Senator Bill Hagerty of Tennessee on May 21, 2025, was passed by the US Senate on June 17, 2025, and passed by the House and signed by US President Donald J. Trump on July 18, 2025.
The GENIUS Act aims to make payment of Stablecoins a digital asset. This act proposes that only regulated entities can issue Stablecoins, this being Permitted Payment Stablecoin Issuer (PPSI) and defines Digital Asset Service Provider as an entity which acts as the custodian of said digital assets.
After the Bill was signed by US President Trump, the one-year rulemaking window deadline started, the objective is to finalize the provisions of the legislation law on or before July 18, 2026, as the core statutory requirements of the bill will be announced January 18, 2027, and effectivity for soon after. However, on July 19, 2026, news reports that US regulators failed to pass finalized implementing rules and regulations and missed the one-year deadline. Although missing the statutory deadline does not automatically invalidate and reject the passing of GENIUS Act, the event of the missed deadline, causes uncertainties to Stablecoin users and advocates.
Why did US Regulators miss the 1-year deadline?
News reports say that on Saturday afternoon on July 18, 2026, principal rules packages by Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) and Treasury Department remained proposals and other rules involving the Federal Reserve and federal anti-money laundering remain unfinished, with sections still open for public comments and deliberations.
Some of the major rules are still on the reporting stage such as; FDIC’s prudential reports standards proposal, NCUA’s licensing proposal and operational and risk-management proposal, US Treasury’s proposed state-regulation principles, and customer identification proposal by The Federal Reserve, FinCEN, OCC, FDIC and NCUA. In addition, the FDIC’s proposal for Bank Secrecy Act and sanctions of compliance remains open for comments and unfinished. While these are only a few provisions which are still in progress, the GENIUS Act should leave no room for regulatory ambiguity.
A Federal Law for Stablecoins… Sounds Familiar?
Now in 2026, there are two Federal Laws aimed to provide regulations for using and issuance of Stablecoins in the crypto industry: The Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act (GENIUS Act) 2025 and The Stable Act 2025.
In hindsight, both Acts aim to provide proper regulations for using of Stablecoins, but it is important to note that the primary objective is similar but different, for Genius Act the objective is to provide a clear compliance regulatory requirements for stablecoin issuers while Stable Act emphasizes a proper regulatory framework with greater consumer protections.
