The US Department of the Treasury published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on 17 August 2026 under Section 3 of the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act. The NPRM appears in the Federal Register as document 2026-16796 at 12 CFR Chapter XV and is at the proposed rule stage. The public comment period closes 19 October 2026.
GENIUS Act Section 3 prohibits any person from issuing a payment stablecoin in the United States without an appropriate federal or state licence, effective 18 January 2027. From 18 July 2028, digital asset service providers may not offer or sell payment stablecoins to persons in the United States unless those stablecoins are issued by a licensed issuer. The proposed rule at 12 CFR Chapter XV defines the terms 'issue a payment stablecoin in the United States' and 'offer or sell to a person in the United States,' specifying the jurisdictional triggers for each prohibition.
Payment stablecoin issuers, digital asset exchanges, custodians, and foreign issuers distributing to US retail or institutional buyers must determine whether their structures will require a GENIUS licence before 18 January 2027. The proposed jurisdictional definitions are critical for foreign issuers: distribution structured outside the US may still constitute an offer or sale to persons in the United States and trigger the secondary prohibition effective 18 July 2028. Digital asset service providers must separately assess whether their business lines bring them within that offer-and-sale restriction.
The NPRM does not resolve how approved state payment stablecoin licensing regimes will interact with federal licensing requirements. A parallel NPRM on Customer Identification Program requirements for permitted payment stablecoin issuers was published on 22 June 2026 (Federal Register No. 2026-12460). Additional rulemaking under GENIUS Act Section 4 on illicit finance controls for stablecoin issuers remains pending. The Treasury has separately published NPRM principles documents addressing anti-money laundering and sanctions compliance program requirements.
Licentium advises digital asset businesses on GENIUS Act readiness, stablecoin licensing strategy, and cross-border market access compliance. We may draw on our partner network for US regulatory counsel. Work we undertake includes stablecoin regulatory structuring, licensing applications, cross-border payment compliance, and digital asset regulatory advisory.