FDIC Prepares GENIUS Act Framework to Regulate Stablecoin Issuers
Regulators are finally catching up—or trying to. The FDIC is quietly building the rulebook for the GENIUS Act, a move that could finally put guardrails around the wild west of stablecoin issuance.
The New Rulebook
Forget vague guidance. This framework aims to lay down specific capital, liquidity, and operational requirements for any company wanting to issue dollar-pegged digital tokens. It's a direct response to the explosive, and largely unsupervised, growth of the stablecoin market.
Why It Matters Now
The timing isn't an accident. With trillions in daily transactions flowing through stablecoins, systemic risk is no longer a theoretical debate. The FDIC's move signals that Washington sees these digital dollars as critical financial infrastructure, not just crypto toys. It's a bid for control before the next crisis hits—because in finance, the rules are always written by the last disaster.
The Tightrope Walk
Get this right, and it could legitimize a cornerstone of crypto finance, attracting institutional capital. Get it wrong, and you stifle innovation or, worse, push the activity into even darker corners of the internet. The real genius of the GENIUS Act will be whether it manages to protect consumers without handing the entire market over to the usual Wall Street suspects—a trick regulators have yet to pull off.
FDIC to release initial GENIUS Act rules by end of December
Hill announced that the FDIC intends to publish its proposed application framework for stablecoin issuers “later this month,” with additional prudential rules to follow in early 2026.
“The FDIC has begun work to promulgate rules to implement the GENIUS Act; we expect to issue a proposed rule to establish our application framework later this month and a proposed rule to implement the GENIUS Act’s prudential requirements for FDIC-supervised payment stablecoin issuers early next year,” Hill said in his prepared testimony.
The framework is expected to outline licensing standards, capital and liquidity requirements, and reserve diversification obligations for FDIC-supervised entities that seek to issue payment stablecoins.
What the GENIUS Act does
Signed into law by President Donald TRUMP in July, the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act (GENIUS Act) introduces the first unified federal framework for regulating stablecoin issuers.
Under the law, only licensed entities may issue payment stablecoins to U.S. consumers. Eligible issuers must fall into one of three categories:
- A state-qualified payment stablecoin issuer
- A federal-qualified nonbank payment stablecoin issuer
- A subsidiary of an insured depository institution (IDI)
The FDIC, Federal Reserve, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), and the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) are all responsible for portions of the Act, making inter-agency coordination central to the rollout.
FDIC to oversee IDI subsidiaries issuing stablecoins
Hill emphasized that the FDIC will hold direct responsibility for authorizing and supervising subsidiaries of FDIC-supervised banks that plan to issue stablecoins. He noted that throughout 2025, the agency has taken what he described as a “constructive” approach to banks exploring digital-asset services, while maintaining strong safety-and-soundness expectations.
Hill also confirmed that the agency is developing new guidance to clarify the regulatory treatment of tokenized deposits, following recommendations from the President’s Working Group on Digital Asset Markets (PWG), which released its own report in July.
Other federal regulators outline GENIUS Act responsibilities
The House Financial Services Committee hearing also featured testimony from senior officials at the Federal Reserve, OCC, and NCUA. All four agencies have been repeatedly questioned by lawmakers about crypto-related risks and regulatory gaps over the past several years.
Federal Reserve Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman said in her prepared remarks that the central bank is working to fulfill its GENIUS Act mandate:
Bowman stated that the Fed is “attempting to develop capital, liquidity, and diversification regulations for stablecoin issuers as required by the GENIUS Act.”
Treasury Department continues public consultation process
Separately, the U.S. Department of the Treasury has been advancing its own responsibilities under the Act. On September 18, the department issued an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) seeking public feedback on how the Treasury should structure its stablecoin oversight rules.
According to the Treasury, the GENIUS Act requires regulators to encourage responsible innovation while designing safeguards to prevent financial stability risks. The ANPRM does not impose new requirements but instead invites comments, data, and industry insights—continuing Treasury’s earlier Request for Comment on detecting illicit digital-asset activity released on August 18, 2025.
The public comment period for the ANPRM closed on November 4.
A significant regulatory shift for the U.S. crypto landscape
The GENIUS Act marks one of the most significant steps yet by Washington to lay down clear rules for stablecoins, a part of the crypto market that has grown quickly in both popularity and financial influence. With multiple agencies now advancing their respective pieces of the framework, federal oversight of stablecoins is expected to take much clearer shape in 2026.
The FDIC’s upcoming proposals—set for release this month—will be the first major regulatory documents outlining how the U.S. government intends to license, supervise, and enforce standards on stablecoin issuers under the new law.
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