News, data and analysis on tokenized assets, market design and digital economic systems.
A federal licensing regime for payment stablecoin issuers is law, but every implementing rule was still at the proposed stage when the statute's own rulemaking deadline passed, and the companion market-structure bill has yet to reach a Senate floor vote.
The GENIUS Act creates a federal licensing regime for payment stablecoin issuers, with 1:1 high-quality liquid reserves, monthly reserve attestations, redemption rights and parallel federal and state approval pathways. Every implementing rulemaking remained at the proposed stage as the statute's July 18, 2026 rulemaking deadline passed: Treasury has issued an advance notice (September 18, 2025) and proposals on certification of state regimes (April 1, 2026) and illicit finance (April 8, 2026); the OCC proposed its issuer framework on February 25, 2026; the FDIC proposed licensing rules on December 16, 2025 and capital and liquidity rules on April 7, 2026; the NCUA proposed rules on February 11 and May 18, 2026; and FinCEN proposed customer identification requirements on June 18, 2026. The companion CLARITY Act market-structure bill passed the House in 2025 and cleared the Senate Banking Committee 15-9 on May 14, 2026, but a floor vote was still unscheduled in late July 2026. Separately, the OCC conditionally approved five national trust bank charters for digital-asset firms on December 12, 2025, and SEC staff issued a joint statement on tokenized securities on January 28, 2026 confirming that tokenization does not change the securities-law character of an instrument.
| Framework | Status | Date | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act (GENIUS Act, Public Law 119-27) | Enacted | 18 July 2025 | Federal regime for payment stablecoin issuers: 1:1 reserves in cash, short-dated Treasuries and repo, monthly attestations, par redemption, no interest payments to holders, dual federal/state pathways with a $10bn state-regime threshold. |
| Treasury advance notice of proposed rulemaking on GENIUS Act implementation | Proposed | 18 September 2025 | Sought comment on the scope of the payment stablecoin definition, foreign issuer comparability and reserve composition ahead of formal proposals. |
| FDIC notice of proposed rulemaking on stablecoin issuer applications | Proposed | 16 December 2025 | Application and approval procedures for FDIC-supervised subsidiaries seeking to issue payment stablecoins. |
| NCUA notices of proposed rulemaking on credit union stablecoin issuance | Proposed | 11 February 2026 | First proposal February 11, 2026; a second NCUA proposal followed on May 18, 2026. Neither was finalised as of July 2026. |
| OCC notice of proposed rulemaking for federally qualified payment stablecoin issuers | Proposed | 25 February 2026 | Application, supervision and capital expectations for national banks and federal branches issuing payment stablecoins. |
| Treasury notice of proposed rulemaking on certification of state stablecoin regimes | Proposed | 1 April 2026 | Process by which state regimes are certified as substantially similar to the federal framework. |
| Treasury notice of proposed rulemaking on illicit finance and AML for stablecoin issuers | Proposed | 8 April 2026 | Sanctions compliance, blocking and lawful-order capability requirements for permitted payment stablecoin issuers. |
| FDIC notice of proposed rulemaking on capital, liquidity and risk management for stablecoin issuers | Proposed | 7 April 2026 | Prudential standards for FDIC-supervised issuing subsidiaries. |
| FinCEN notice of proposed rulemaking on customer identification programs for stablecoin issuers | Proposed | 18 June 2026 | Would extend CIP obligations to permitted payment stablecoin issuers. |
| Digital Asset Market Clarity Act (CLARITY Act, H.R.3633) | Pending | 14 May 2026 | Passed the House in 2025; approved by the Senate Banking Committee 15-9 on May 14, 2026 and placed on the Senate Legislative Calendar (No. 423). Revised committee text circulated June 1, 2026; floor consideration unscheduled as of late July 2026. |
| SEC Division of Corporation Finance and Division of Trading and Markets staff statement on tokenized securities | Guidance | 28 January 2026 | Confirms that a tokenized security remains a security and that distribution, custody and settlement obligations follow the underlying instrument. |
| OCC conditional approvals of national trust bank charters for digital-asset firms | In force | 12 December 2025 | Five conditional approvals: First National Digital Currency Bank (Circle), Ripple National Trust Bank, BitGo Bank and Trust, Fidelity Digital Assets and Paxos Trust Company. Circle received final OCC approval on July 10, 2026. |
| NYDFS virtual currency regime (BitLicense, 23 NYCRR Part 200) and stablecoin guidance | In force | 8 June 2022 | State-level licensing and reserve/attestation guidance for USD-backed stablecoins issued from New York. |
Every development we have evidenced under United States, newest first.
Interest on the reserves behind USDC fell to $658m as rates dropped, while average circulation grew 8% to $73.3bn. A $182m presale of the ARC token carried revenue growth, and Circle agreed to buy Tazapay, a Singapore cross-border payments firm.
Intercontinental Exchange signed a definitive agreement to become the exclusive operator of a new, separate, regulated US retail market and clearing structure for Trade[XYZ]'s perpetual futures, built on Hyperliquid and subject to regulatory approvals, and took an undisclosed minority stake in Trade[XYZ].
DTCC's depository subsidiary launched a service that turns securities it holds into tokens delivered to registered wallets, on the Canton Network and DTCC's private Besu network, with more networks due in 2027. Twenty participants have signed. Both reports put eligible securities at 34.
The final rule cuts the daily liquidity floor from 10% to 5% of reserves, drops the proposed weekly liquidity test and 20-day maturity cap, and removes the presumption that yield paid through affiliates or partners breaches the ban on interest.
BNY said Citadel Securities bought a two-year Treasury note through it on Tradeweb, a tokenized representation was recorded on BNY's private ledger and settled within minutes, and the note was pledged in an overnight triparty repo with BNY providing the cash. No ledger, value, rate or loan amount was named.
The CFTC proposed adding sports, political, cultural and weather event contracts to the swap definition, with 30 days of comment after publication. An interim final rule, effective on publication, excludes wagers regulated as gambling under state or tribal law and not traded on an exchange. Both documents say the SEC joins them.
Securitize began offering tokens of 12 US stocks, including Apple, Nvidia and Tesla, each a security entitlement backed one for one by a share, with dividends and votes and no share lending. They trade on its broker-dealer platform on Solana and settle in USDC. Listings on the planned NYSE and OKXICE venues are expected; neither has launched.
Samsung Electronics America said Samsung Wallet will support USDC transfers from the last week of October on 82 million compatible US Galaxy devices. Sends to crypto wallets carry no Samsung fee; bank payouts in more than 60 countries carry fees. Bastion runs the accounts, Coinbase is sub-custodian, and Solana and Sui supply the networks.
FinCEN withdrew the December 2020 proposal requiring reports on transfers above $10,000 involving unhosted wallets and the October 2023 finding that international crypto mixing is of primary money laundering concern. It will take no further action on the first and may act on mixers in future.
The commission seeks comment on treating retail crypto trades at exchanges that offer leverage as futures until actual delivery, and on a new crypto asset market licence, RIN 3038-AF80.
The OKX and ICE joint venture describes permissioned Uniswap v4 pools for 63 tokenized stock symbols paired with USDC, USDG or USDT, with no clearing agency and an unnamed tokenizer.
The community bank trade group's complaint in the District of Columbia federal court says the National Bank Act does not let the OCC charter trust banks that neither take deposits nor act as fiduciaries, and seeks an injunction against further approvals under the rule.
A permissioned dollar token issued by VersaBank USA for transfers between North Dakota banks and credit unions, minted against dollars in custody accounts and burned on arrival, with positions netted daily by ACH at the state bank.
Release IA-7023 would apply the adviser rule to crypto assets that are funds or securities, names GENIUS Act payment stablecoins and tokenized deposits as funds, and opens a 60 day comment period from Federal Register publication.
Issuers need an OFR licence, a trust company certificate of approval or an exemption to do business in Florida, with GENIUS Act reserve, disclosure and monthly examination terms. The application form is to be set by rule, and none was on the register on the day the law took effect.
OIRA logged both on 28 September as not economically significant, with no text or abstract. The swap definition was last further defined jointly with the SEC in 2012, and no SEC item is under review beside them.
Citi's institutional clients can accept stablecoins at checkout through Coinbase Payments, converted to fiat and settled by Citi as bank of record, and Coinbase Virtual Accounts on Citi's Virtual Account Wallet convert incoming fiat into stablecoins. No stablecoin is named.
tZERO Securities handles trades in the Institutional class of the $105.27bn Financial Square Treasury Instruments Fund for firms on Lynq, which runs on a private Avalanche chain. It is the first outside fund on the network. The fund's Token Shares class held $10,424.54 at 31 August.
Eligible clients pledge the shares through ByCustody and receive USDT or USDC trading credit lines on Bybit while the shares stay in custody and keep earning yield. The release names no fund, amount or haircut; the $686m in reports is the whole Franklin OnChain U.S. Government Money Fund at 31 August.
The Commission order permits Coinbase Clearing to clear fully collateralized futures, options on futures and swaps as defined in Regulation 39.2, completing Coinbase's exchange, broker and clearing registrations. Coinbase says the clearing house will take USDC as collateral and settle around the clock; the order and the filed rulebook do not name USDC.
Circle earned less from the reserves behind its USDC stablecoin than a year ago. Revenue still grew because it sold tokens for its new blockchain, which raises the question of what happens when that money stops.
Intercontinental Exchange will run a separate, regulated market for Trade[XYZ]'s round-the-clock contracts on the Hyperliquid blockchain and take a stake in the firm. Nothing can open until regulators approve it.
The company that holds $114trn of securities for America's markets now lets 20 banks and brokers turn some into tokens that can move around the clock. Only a few dozen securities qualify so far, and the cash side is still a plan.
America's national bank regulator has set the rules for the stablecoin issuers it will supervise. It halved the cash they must keep on hand from its draft, and no longer presumes that rewards paid through partners break the ban on interest.
Citadel Securities pledged a tokenized US government bond for an overnight loan from BNY, the bank that dominates that market. BNY names no ledger, sum or rate, and one trade publication asks why a token was needed.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission wants contracts on sport, politics and the weather treated as federal derivatives. To blunt the states' main objection, it has declared at once that ordinary sports bets and casino games are not.
What issued, what settled, what the supervisors changed, with the numbers behind it and a note on what the numbers do not show. One email, Thursday mornings.
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