U.S. crypto regulation moved on two fronts on August 21, 2026, as a federal comment window closed for stablecoin customer identification rules under the GENIUS Act while the SEC published its proposed “Regulation Crypto Assets” framework in the Federal Register, opening a 60-day public comment period.
Five agencies — FinCEN, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Reserve Board, the FDIC and the National Credit Union Administration — are behind the stablecoin customer identification program proposal. The Federal Register cutoff was August 21, 2026. The rule would treat permitted payment stablecoin issuers as financial institutions for Bank Secrecy Act purposes and require them to maintain an effective customer identification program.
The proposal does not make every stablecoin holder a customer. It centers on direct relationships with issuers and excludes people whose only activity is acquiring or redeeming a stablecoin other than directly from or to the issuer. Ownership of a stablecoin alone is also excluded. Direct customers, however, would face banking-style onboarding, including written, risk-based procedures capable of forming a reasonable belief about a customer’s true identity.
Public comments visible through the Federal Reserve show focus on digital identity mechanics. Independent adviser Nico Paulo Mendoza proposed machine-readable identity fields and allowing Legal Entity Identifiers as supplementary identifiers. VeloxVFX LLC also filed before the deadline. After the final rule, permitted payment stablecoin issuers would have 12 months to implement the CIP requirements.
Meanwhile, the SEC’s Regulation Crypto Assets proposal, listed as File No. S7-2026-27, was published August 21 with comments due by October 20. The framework includes a one-time startup exemption of up to $5 million and a 12-month fundraising exemption of up to $75 million. It also includes a conditional safe-harbor concept that could allow certain tokens to cease being treated as investment contracts if the issuer certifies that managerial efforts have been completed or discontinued.
The rules are not final. The SEC may revise the proposal based on feedback, narrow exemptions, add conditions or adjust definitions. Together, the two proceedings mark a regulatory phase rather than legislative action: agencies are now deciding what stablecoin customer identification will actually require and what compliant token fundraising in the U.S. could look like.
