Five Months Before Its Implementation, the U.S. Stablecoin Law Still Seeks Its Operating Manual

Five months before the deadline, the U.S. law intended to regulate stablecoins remains a work in progress. In this context, the U.S. Treasury has just published its most anticipated draft rules. Additionally, a crucial public consultation has been opened. However, with accumulated delays and a paralyzed Congress, nothing is yet certain. Behind the regulatory urgency lies the global dominance of the dollar.

In Brief

• On August 17, 2026, the U.S. Treasury published a draft rule defining who must obtain a federal license to issue stablecoins in the United States.
• The text opens a 60-day public consultation, with a response deadline set for mid-October 2026.
• The GENIUS Act is set to take effect on January 18, 2027, but no definitive rules have yet been finalized.

Stablecoins: What the New Treasury Proposal Really Changes {#h-stablecoins-ce-que-change-vraiment-le-nouveau-projet-du-tresor}

On August 17, 2026, the U.S. Treasury Department published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) concerning Section 3 of the GENIUS Act. Approved by the Senate in June 2025, this law regulates payment stablecoins in the United States.

Specifically, this text defines two previously vague concepts:

• what it means to "issue" a stablecoin in the United States;
• what it means to "offer or sell" a stablecoin to a person residing on U.S. soil.

These definitions are not mere legal details. They determine which issuer must obtain a federal license and which can settle for a state approval.

The U.S. Treasury specifies that it has deliberately set aside certain reflexes from classical securities law. It believes that stablecoins are intended to serve as a means of payment rather than an investment instrument.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent justifies the current approach in a statement released on Monday:

These new rules must provide businesses with the regulatory certainty needed to innovate, consolidate the dollar's role as a global reserve, and make the United States the global capital of cryptocurrency.

This statement illustrates the ambition expressed by Washington: to make the tokenized dollar a global standard for digital payments.

A High-Risk Timeline for Stablecoins

The text sets two deadlines:

• Starting January 18, 2027, the expected effective date of the law, any entity wishing to issue a stablecoin in the United States must hold a license, either federal or state.
• From July 18, 2028, digital asset service providers will no longer be able to offer any stablecoin to U.S. residents that is not issued by a licensed issuer.

Thus, there is an 18-month transition window between the two deadlines. Nevertheless, the actual timeline is already worrying industry professionals. In reality, the law initially required regulators to finalize their rules within 120 days after the vote on the text in July 2025. This deadline expired in July 2026, with no definitive rules published.

As a result, the Genius Act could come into effect in January 2027 without a complete operating manual. A rare situation for financial regulation of such magnitude!

The public now has 60 days after publication in the Federal Register to comment on the text, with a deadline estimated for mid-October 2026. The Treasury will then need to sift through this feedback before drafting a final version. The process typically takes several additional months.

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Why is the regulation of stablecoins so delayed?

The U.S. Treasury is not acting alone. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), and the Federal Reserve have each published their own rule proposals in 2026, without perfect coordination among the agencies. This institutional fragmentation partly explains the accumulation of delays. The fact is that each regulator is moving on its own timeline, with its own priorities.

Adding to this is a political blockage. The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act is currently stalled in the Senate. This bill is supposed to rewrite certain provisions of the GENIUS Act, particularly regarding the treatment of yield programs offered to stablecoin holders on exchanges. Key votes could not begin before the summer break in August, leaving uncertainty about the final articulation between the two texts.

For analysts, this situation reflects a structural imbalance: the United States has legislated quickly on the principle of stablecoins, but struggles to transform this general framework into precise operational rules. A classic gap between the political ambition of a text and the slow mechanics of its administrative implementation!

Tether, USDC: Who stands to lose the most in the stablecoin battle?

The market does not pause while Washington legislates. According to data aggregated by DefiLlama, the total market capitalization of stablecoins stands at $308.0 billion. This represents a 14.3% increase year-on-year, with a historical peak of $322.4 billion on May 17, 2026. Chart showing the evolution of stablecoin capitalization (Source: DefiLlama)

Tether (USDT) maintains a dominant position with nearly $183 billion in capitalization, accounting for about 59% of the market (far ahead of the USDC issued by Circle).

It is precisely on the treatment of foreign issuers that the sector's attention is focused. Tether, based outside the United States, illustrates the case in point. Indeed, the Treasury's text will need to specify under what conditions a foreign issuer can continue to be distributed on U.S. soil without a local license, provided that certain reciprocal commitments between jurisdictions are respected. A regulatory misstep could therefore jeopardize the world's largest stablecoin's access to the U.S. market, with cascading repercussions on the liquidity of the entire crypto ecosystem.

Onchain transfer volumes measure the stakes involved. According to CryptoRank Research, USDC transfers reached approximately $3.6 trillion in July 2026 (compared to $1.4 trillion for USDT). These figures illustrate two distinct usage logics (institutional payment for one and trading liquidity for the other) that the future Treasury rule will need to address with equal rigor. Distribution of stablecoins based on transfer volumes (Source: CryptoRank)

Five months before the deadline, the stablecoin law is progressing without a definitive safety net. With scattered agencies, a gridlocked Congress, and a market already at $310 billion, the next steps will depend on a simple factor: the speed at which Washington transforms ambition into enforceable rules.