US Stablecoin Rules Still Unfinished Five Months Before Deadline

Five months before the GENIUS Act takes effect, the U.S. Treasury has published its draft rules for payment stablecoins – but the rulemaking process is running late, and a separate bill that could reshape the law is stuck in the Senate.

The Treasury released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Aug. 17 under Section 3 of the GENIUS Act, which the Senate passed in June 2025. The law set a Jan. 1, 2027 effective date for federal regulation of payment stablecoins. It defines two categories: "payment stablecoins" and "endorsed payment stablecoins," the latter requiring a federal license. Issuers of the former can operate under state authorization.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement Monday that the rules are meant to "provide the regulatory certainty necessary to innovate, strengthen the dollar's role as the world's reserve currency, and make the United States the global cryptocurrency capital."

The law originally required regulators to finalize rules within 120 days of the July 2025 vote. That deadline passed in July 2026 without any definitive rules. The Treasury's NPRM opens a 60-day public comment period that runs through mid-October 2026. After that, the agency must review responses and draft a final version – a process that typically takes months.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Federal Reserve each published their own draft rules in 2026, but without full coordination, several industry participants said. That institutional fragmentation has contributed to the delays.