On Sept. 24, the Fed proposed two GENIUS Act rules: one on reserves, capital and risk controls for supervised payment-stablecoin issuers, and one for banks seeking to issue through subsidiaries. The proposals have a 60-day comment period after Federal Register publication.
The reserve proposal would require eligible assets to equal or exceed the value of outstanding stablecoins at all times and be kept separate from other issuer assets. Permitted backing could include short-term U.S. Treasury bills and other high-quality, liquid assets. The proposal also covers firms safeguarding reserves and clarifies activities permissible for Fed-supervised banks.
The separate bank proposal would require applicants to provide a business plan, financial information and details of their proposed capital structure. Signed into law on July 18, 2025, the GENIUS Act generally limits issuance to approved entities and requires at least 1:1 backing with qualifying reserves. Broader crypto market-structure legislation remains unresolved: the Senate failed to advance the CLARITY Act on Sept. 15 in a 49-50 procedural vote.
