The US Treasury published the first binding rule under the GENIUS Act on September 30, drawing a hard regulatory line at $10 billion of outstanding stablecoins and starting a clock for every state regulator that wants to keep supervising issuers. The interim final rule, Federal Register document 2026-19966, took effect immediately on publication, the first time a GENIUS Act requirement has carried actual legal force rather than sitting in a comment period.
The rule builds the procedural machinery for the Stablecoin Certification Review Committee, a body chaired by the Treasury Secretary and including the heads of the Federal Reserve and the FDIC. Its job is to decide whether state regulatory regimes are “substantially similar” to the federal framework for payment stablecoins.
The $10 billion split
The number that matters is $10 billion. Issuers with $10 billion or less in consolidated outstanding tokens may keep state regulation, if their home state certifies to the committee that its oversight meets federal standards. Anything above that cap is excluded from the state pathway, and those issuers must move to the federal framework within 360 days unless they win a waiver under Section 4(d)(3).
Practically, that splits the US stablecoin market in two. Sub-$10 billion issuers such as trust-charter and SPDI-based tokens stay under state regimes that pass the test. The largest issuers face federal oversight regardless of what their state operator wants.
What states must file
An initial certification needs a signed attestation, a narrative explaining how the state regime meets Treasury’s substantial-similarity principles, and the supporting statutes, regulations and guidance. The statute sets a one-year deadline for first certifications. The rule also spells out procedures for denial, a two-year cure period, resubmission and appeal.
There is some slack. The interim final rule allows states flexibility in meeting the submission deadline, and a public comment window runs to November 30 while the Paperwork Reduction Act review is pending. Certifications will not be accepted until that review ends.
Where this fits in the wider rulebook
The certification rule is the second big piece of GENIUS Act implementation this quarter. On August 18, Treasury proposed a separate rule on payment stablecoin issuance, offer and sale, with open questions about safe harbors for state-licensed issuers that fail to certify or to recertify. Comments on that proposal close October 19. The Fed is working its own stablecoin rulemaking, including a proposed two-business-day redemption guarantee that would reach roughly $76 billion in exchange-held stablecoins.
Interagency jockeying is visible around edges of the statute. SEC commissioner Hester Peirce warned in late September against letting stablecoin customer-identification rules build up new pools of personal data. Her critique targeted proposed five-year customer record requirements, which she called KYC honeypots.
What it means for the market
Certification is voluntary for states but expensive to fail. A state that misses the one-year window or flunks the similarity test leaves its issuers without the state pathway, forcing them into the federal process or out of the US market. State regimes in states like Wyoming and Texas, which built trust-charter frameworks years before GENIUS passed, will be the first test cases.
Larger issuers now have a fixed date: transition to the federal framework within 360 days of the relevant effective date. Treasury has not yet published the full federal application forms; those came out in draft from the OCC for federal charters in late September and industry groups already filed comments on them. More detailed requirements will land through further rulemaking into early 2027.
Scale of the market now under review
Total stablecoin supply sits near $291 billion, per CoinGabbar’s October market snapshot, with Bitcoin dominance at 56.8 percent. Getting the supervisory map right touches payment rails far beyond crypto trading. Visa reported this week that 17 percent of stablecoin-linked card volume now comes from business programs, with that volume up close to 200 percent year over year, and Citi has built stablecoin acceptance into its merchant platform through a Coinbase partnership. Regulatory classification determines which banks and payment firms can touch these flows directly.
Other jurisdictions are watching. The EU’s MiCA stablecoin rules have been fully in force since the end of 2024. Hong Kong granted its first stablecoin issuer licenses in April. A fragmented US approach, with dozens of state regimes before certification, was the outcome the committee process is designed to avoid.
| Regime | Key jurisdiction | Status |
|---|---|---|
| GENIUS Act federal framework | United States | In force, implementation running into early 2027 |
| State certification, under $10B issuers | United States | Procedures effective now, acceptance pending comment review to Nov 30 |
| EU MiCA | European Union | Fully in force since December 2024 |
| Stablecoins Ordinance | Hong Kong | In force since August 2025, first licenses April 2026 |
The immediate deadlines
Three dates now govern the sector. October 19 closes comments on the Treasury issuance proposal. November 30 ends the comment period on the certification procedures themselves. The one-year deadline for initial state certifications is already running under the statute. Everyone involved, issuers, state regulators and the committee members, is working on parallel clocks set by the same law.
Reaction so far
Industry response has been procedural rather than hostile, a change from the fight over the statute itself last year. Joint trades groups commented on the OCC’s stablecoin application forms on September 25, asking for narrower information requests and clearer timelines. Their quiet tone on the certification rule suggests issuers read it as workable, if demanding.
Compliance teams have the harder read. A “substantially similar” test invites argument, and the committee’s composition means a state certification can clear one Treasury and stall under the next. Lawyers advising smaller issuers are telling clients to map both paths now: certification through their home state, and a federal charter claim, with the 360-day transition clock as the deadline both plans have to beat.
State regulators have their own calculation. Certification preserves their supervisory franchise for issuers inside the threshold. Losing a certification, or never submitting one, hands those firms to Washington. Expect submissions from states with existing trust frameworks first, and a slow fill-in from the rest.