Treasury Opens Stablecoin Rulemaking Under GENIUS Act, Bars Unlicensed Issuers

The U.S. Treasury Department has formally launched the rulemaking process for payment stablecoins under the GENIUS Act, issuing a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that will set federal licensing requirements for issuers operating in the country. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent confirmed the move on X, framing it as the next step toward turning the law’s provisions into enforceable rules.

Under the GENIUS Act, companies generally cannot issue payment stablecoins in the United States without obtaining an appropriate federal or state license. The NPRM begins the formal process of writing the detailed standards that issuers — domestic and foreign — will have to meet to legally operate in the US market.

Licensing gate for foreign issuers

The proposed framework introduces mandatory licensing across the board and sets specific barriers for foreign stablecoin issuers seeking access to US users. For an industry that has largely operated with a patchwork of state-level money transmitter licenses and offshore issuance, a single federal licensing gate marks a structural shift in how dollar-pegged tokens can be distributed inside the country.

Bessent said the administration and Congress have now given the industry clarity on the rules it must follow, positioning the rulemaking as the practical follow-through on the GENIUS Act rather than a new layer of restriction. He tied the effort directly to a broader policy goal: keeping the United States, in his words, “the crypto capital of the world.”

Why the licensing detail matters to holders

For traders and businesses holding or transacting in dollar-pegged stablecoins, the NPRM is the document that will decide which issuers can keep operating in the US and under what capital, reserve and disclosure standards. Any stablecoin issuer without a qualifying federal or state license risks being locked out of the US market once the rules are finalized, which could reshape liquidity across the largest stablecoins used in crypto trading and settlement.

The rulemaking also signals to foreign-based issuers that access to US users will now run through a federal licensing process rather than informal market access, a change that market participants will be watching closely as the comment process moves forward.

Read more: Treasury Opens 60-Day Comment Window as GENIUS Act’s Jan. 18, 2027 Deadline Looms

Sources

• u.today
• theblock.co