The GENIUS Act: What the Statute Actually Says

The statute, by its own name

The GENIUS Act is Public Law 119-27. Section 1 gives the long name. The Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act ^[1]. It was approved 18 July 2025. The text carries its own history block. Senate passage in May and June 2025. House passage 17 July. Presidential remarks 18 July ^[1]. Every date here comes from that text.

What the law creates is a federal framework. One category: payment stablecoins. An eligible issuer must be a United States entity. One of three boxes. A subsidiary of an insured depository institution, approved to issue. A federal qualified issuer. A state qualified issuer ^[1]. The statute attaches duties to whichever box applies.

When it takes effect

Section 20 sets the start date by a two-part rule. The earlier of two events ^[1]. First, 18 months after enactment. Second, 120 days after final implementing regulations ^[1].

Eighteen months after 18 July 2025 lands on 18 January 2027. At the research date, 11 September 2026, no final rules existed. The Federal Register’s final-rules query returned nothing for the statute ^[2]. So the statutory date governs. 18 January 2027. That holds unless final rules arrive with unusual speed.

The rulemaking is moving. It is just not finished. The main Treasury proposal was published 18 August 2026. Comments run into 19 October 2026 ^[2]. A five-agency proposal on customer identification closed its window 21 August 2026 ^[2]. The docket set the read counted 32 documents. Proposed is the operative word.

The $10 billion line

The state and federal split turns on one measure. A state qualified issuer may stay under state supervision below a line. The line is consolidated total outstanding issuance of $10,000,000,000 ^[1]. The state regime must be substantially similar to the federal one ^[1]. The measure is outstanding issuance. Not market value. Not reserves. Not another denominator.

Crossing the line starts a clock. The issuer must transition to the federal framework. No later than 360 days after the crossing ^[1]. State and federal regulators run it jointly ^[1]. Two tiers, with a dated bridge.

Reserves, redemption, and the interest ban

Section 4 carries the core duties. Reserves must back outstanding payment stablecoins. At least one to one ^[1]. The classes are listed. United States coins and currency, plus Federal Reserve Bank balances. Demand deposits or insured shares at an insured depository institution. Treasury bills, notes, or bonds at short remaining maturities. Overnight repurchase agreements backed by such Treasury issues. Reverse repurchase agreements ^[1]. And rehypothecation of reserves is prohibited ^[1].

One prohibition surprises most readers. No permitted issuer may pay a holder interest or yield on the token. Not in cash. Not in tokens. Not in other consideration. The ban covers holding, using, or retaining the payment stablecoin ^[1]. Yield on the token itself is off the table here.

Redemption and disclosure duties complete the set. Issuers must keep clear procedures for timely redemption. Fees are disclosed in plain language. Fee changes need at least 7 days’ notice ^[1]. Monthly, each issuer must publish its reserve composition on its website. Total outstanding stablecoins. Amount and composition of reserves. Average tenor and custody location, per reserve category ^[1]. That monthly publication is the disclosure hook the attestations page teaches readers to read.

Two bills that came before

Congress reached this statute after two failed attempts. Both records are worth reading straight. The first was H.R. 8827. Introduced in the House, 30 November 2020. By Representative Tlaib, with Representatives Lynch and García of Illinois ^[3].

Official short title: the Stablecoin Classification and Regulation Act of 2020. It would have inserted a stablecoin regime into the Federal Deposit Insurance Act ^[3].

The sponsors announced it on 2 December 2020 as the STABLE Act ^[5]. The announcement described a banking charter requirement for issuers ^[5]. Advance approval from the Federal Reserve and the FDIC before issuance ^[5]. FDIC insurance, or reserves at the Federal Reserve ^[5]. The bill never advanced beyond committee. It died with the 116th Congress ^[3].

The second was S. 3970, introduced 31 March 2022 by Senator Hagerty ^[4]. Short title: the Stablecoin Transparency Act. Reserves would have been confined to short-maturity government securities. Or fully collateralized repos. Or nondigital currency. Audited reserve reports every 30 days ^[4]. It never became law ^[4].

A correction rides here. This site’s old transparency coverage carried a confused attribution. The old page described a House bill of November 2021. Four named sponsors. No such introduction is findable in the primary record. The provisions match the December 2020 STABLE Act announcement ^[5]. The exact name matches the 2022 Senate bill by a different sponsor ^[4]. Two bills, two houses, two years apart, fused into one phantom ^{[3] [4] [5]}. The verified record is above. The framework both sought arrived five years later. As Public Law 119-27.

Where implementation stands

No public register of permitted issuers exists yet. The designation is a creature of the statute. The research found no verified register in force at the read date. A dated negative observation. It is not a prediction. Final rules would change the effective-date answer. The regulation hub tracks that record across regimes.

Where this page sits

The regulation hub opens this pillar. The MiCA page holds the European framework already in force. The UK page holds the British regime and its 2026 gateway. The tokens are introduced at stablecoins. Every legal claim in this library points at the text it rests on.