Hyperliquid's $5.93B USDC reserve and Solana's 43.5% USDC share give them an edge as the Treasury's GENIUS Act deadlines approach. Tron faces near-total US market loss.
Alpha Score of 73 reflects strong overall profile with strong momentum, moderate value, strong quality, strong sentiment.
The U.S. Treasury published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on August 17 to implement Section 3 of the GENIUS Act, the stablecoin law that took effect in July 2025. The 60-day comment period opens a framework defining who needs a license and what constitutes issuing or selling a stablecoin in the United States.
The proposal sets two staggered deadlines. From January 18, 2027, no person may “issue a payment stablecoin in the United States” without a federal or state license. Foreign issuers must demonstrate technological compliance and agree to U.S. court orders and reciprocal agreements with their home jurisdiction. From July 18, 2028, no digital asset service provider may offer or sell any payment stablecoin to U.S. persons unless a licensed issuer put it out.
The first deadline targets primary issuance. The second targets secondary market trading. That distinction carries operational weight. The 2027 deadline restricts minting; the 2028 deadline forces exchanges and intermediaries to delist unlicensed stablecoins.
Some blockchains are positioned to benefit. Hyperliquid holds $5.93 billion in USDC on its HyperEVM, making it the third-largest USDC reserve globally behind only Ethereum and Solana. Circle, which has final approval as a licensed issuer, sent $4.4 billion in USDC through HyperEVM in a single transaction. Hyperliquid’s AQAv2 mechanism, launching August 26, 2026, allocates 90% of yield from non-exclusive stablecoins like USDC to HYPE buybacks, tying regulatory compliance directly to the native token’s value flow.
Arbitrum carries about $6.9 billion in stablecoins, with roughly 63.5% in USDC. That concentration limits delisting risk for protocols holding more Tether. Arbitrum’s status as an Ethereum Layer 2 introduces complexity. Regulators might trace the jurisdiction of issuance back to the base-layer smart contract, exposing Arbitrum to closer scrutiny on the origin of circulating stablecoins.
Polygon’s stablecoin supply jumped from $1.6 billion at the start of 2025 to about $3.76 billion by June 2026. USDC makes up roughly 55% of that. Polygon processed 493 million stablecoin transactions in February 2026, surpassing the combined total of Solana, Base, Arbitrum, and Ethereum. That volume, paired with a USDC majority, could draw users and liquidity away from networks with heavy exposure to unlicensed USDT.
Solana holds $14.5 billion in stablecoins as of May 2026, with $7.72 billion in USDC, about 43.5% of the total. Circle has issued $72.01 billion in USDC on Solana during 2026, signaling an active relationship with the licensed issuer. A significant chunk of Solana’s supply is USDT from Tether, which lacks a GENIUS license. That exposes Solana to liquidity fragmentation when platforms must cut off USDT for U.S. users after the 2028 deadline.
Ethereum has the largest absolute stablecoin supply: about $146.57 billion. Distribution is more balanced. Tether’s USDT represents roughly $79.89 billion and Circle’s USDC about $47.88 billion, with the rest from issuers like Sky’s USDS. USDC accounts for about 33% of the total. Ethereum’s sheer scale gives it a network effect that could cushion the blow. Licensed issuers have an economic incentive to grow on the most liquid network.
Ripple’s case is different. Its stablecoin RLUSD has a conditional OCC license. Circulating supply reaches about $1.71 billion, with 48% on XRP Ledger. Ripple minted an additional $10 million of RLUSD in August 2026. Being a licensed issuer makes RLUSD natively compliant under GENIUS, which could drive adoption on platforms trying to lower regulatory risk.
Europe’s MiCA regulation offers a preview. Implementation there triggered USDT delistings on multiple exchanges and forced users toward USDC and other compliant stablecoins. The GENIUS Act’s 2027 and 2028 deadlines could replicate that pattern in the U.S.
Tron faces the sharpest exposure. It hosts $92.04 billion in stablecoins, with 97.9% in USDT. With no licensed issuer in its stablecoin supply, Tron faces near-total restriction of its U.S. market starting in 2028.
The Treasury proposal is not final. The 60-day comment period and subsequent review could bring changes. Congress is also working on the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, which could rewrite portions of GENIUS.
Performance data for the mentioned assets – except HYPE, which is up 26.3% over 12 months – show declines between 58% and 86% over the same period.
Mastercard earlier this year tested a shared identity system for stablecoin compliance with Borderless.xyz, a pilot that validates credentials across issuers without revealing underlying customer data.
Drafted by a large language model from the source reporting linked above, then screened by automated publishing checks. It is not read by a journalist before publication. Some articles cite our Alpha Score. Verify prices and figures against the original source. Educational coverage, not personalized advice.