Treasury and Fed Open First GENIUS Act Stablecoin Rulemakings for Comment
Treasury's interim final rule on state stablecoin certifications and two Federal Reserve GENIUS Act proposals, all commentable through Nov. 30, begin building the U.S. payment-stablecoin supervision framework.
On Sept. 30 the U.S. Treasury issued an interim final rule setting out the process and forms for state payment stablecoin regulators to certify their regimes to the GENIUS Act's Stablecoin Certification Review Committee, the Treasury-chaired body that must approve state supervision of issuers with $10 billion or less in consolidated outstanding issuance. Separately, on Sept. 24 the Federal Reserve proposed two rules for Board-supervised issuers: one addressing permissible reserve assets, standardized capital requirements, custody of backing assets and the permissibility of stablecoin activities (23 questions), and a 104-page proposal creating application, hearing and appeal procedures for banks seeking approval for a stablecoin-issuing subsidiary (254 questions). Comments on all three close Nov. 30.
These are the first substantive implementation of the GENIUS Act's supervision architecture and reach well beyond crypto-native firms. The Fed proposal sets reserve composition and capital floors and defines the chartering route; the Treasury rule determines whether a state-qualified issuer can remain under state oversight. Counsel should test client eligibility against the $10 billion threshold, model reserve and capital constraints against current balance sheets and treasury operations, and prepare comment submissions. Watch the November comment deadline, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations' Sept. 28 report tying Tether to Iranian shadow banking, and any resulting sanctions or issuer-freeze obligations.