The U.S. Department of the Treasury has issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) seeking public feedback on the implementation of the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act. This represents the first formal regulation proposed by Treasury to implement the landmark stablecoin legislation signed into law earlier this year.
The proposed rules focus on establishing "broad-based principles" for determining whether a state-level regulatory regime is "substantially similar" to the federal framework created by the GENIUS Act. This is crucial for a key provision in the Act that allows smaller stablecoin issuers—those with consolidated total outstanding issuance of not more than $10 billion—to opt for state regulation instead of full federal oversight, provided their state's regime meets this similarity standard.
The Treasury Department stated that this rulemaking process will define the criteria for state-level regulatory equivalency. "The GENIUS Act directs Treasury to, through notice and comment rulemaking, establish broad-based principles for determining whether a state-level regulatory regime is substantially similar to the federal regulatory framework under the GENIUS Act," the agency wrote in its announcement.
This proposal builds upon an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking issued by Treasury in September 2025, which sought broader public input on various implementation matters including tax-related and information gathering issues. The current NPRM opens a 60-day comment period from its publication in the Federal Register, during which members of the public can submit feedback that will be publicly viewable at regulations.gov.
Notably, the GENIUS Act legislation does not address yield-bearing stablecoins, which has become a significant obstacle as Congress attempts to pass broader market structure legislation often referred to as "Clarity." Meanwhile, other federal regulators including the FDIC and OCC have also published their own notices of proposed rulemaking related to stablecoin implementation.
