GENIUS Act
REGULATIONDEFINITION
The Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act — the first comprehensive U.S. federal law regulating dollar-pegged stablecoins, requiring licensed issuers to hold full reserves in cash or short-term Treasuries and publish regular attestations.
Signed into law in the summer of 2025, the GENIUS Act created a federal licensing path for stablecoin issuers, sitting alongside state-level frameworks like New York's BitLicense regime. It requires 1:1 reserve backing in cash or short-dated Treasuries, monthly public reserve attestations, and qualified custody for issuer assets — rules aimed at preventing a repeat of prior stablecoin de-pegging events.
The law matters beyond stablecoins themselves: most bitcoin trading volume, especially on offshore exchanges, is quoted and settled in stablecoins rather than dollars. Tether's August 2026 launch of USAT — a GENIUS Act-compliant token custodied by Anchorage Digital Bank — was built specifically to give U.S. institutions a compliant stablecoin bridge into bitcoin markets.
IN A SENTENCE
“USAT exists because of the GENIUS Act — it's Tether's answer to a U.S. market that finally has stablecoin rules.”
Key facts
Common questions
Does the GENIUS Act regulate bitcoin?
No — it regulates dollar-pegged stablecoins, not bitcoin itself. It matters to bitcoin holders because most trading volume runs through stablecoins as the quote currency.
How is this different from the CLARITY Act?
The GENIUS Act is already signed law covering stablecoins specifically. The CLARITY Act is separate, still-pending legislation that would classify broader digital assets as commodities or securities.