The US Department of the Treasury published its first binding rule under the GENIUS Act on September 30, 2026 — an interim final rule (Federal Register 2026-19966) that took effect immediately. Issued on behalf of the Stablecoin Certification Review Committee (the Committee), it covers the “Forms and Procedures for Review of State Certifications by the Stablecoin Certification Review Committee” and implements Section 4(c) of the Act: a state-qualified payment-stablecoin issuer may stay under state-level oversight, instead of moving to federal supervision, only while its consolidated total outstanding issuance stays at or below $10 billion — and only if its home state’s regulatory regime is certified by the Committee as “substantially similar” to federal standards.
Issuers whose outstanding stablecoins exceed $10 billion are excluded from the state pathway altogether and must transition to federal oversight within 360 days, absent a waiver under Section 4(d)(3). Analysis from Forkast News, syndicated on Yahoo Finance, noted that the two largest payment-stablecoin issuers, Tether and Circle, both sit above that threshold: Circle already holds a federal charter from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, obtained in December 2025, while Tether — a non-US entity — cannot use the state pathway regardless, since it is open only to issuers organized under US or state law. For anyone who moves money internationally and may increasingly rely on dollar-pegged stablecoins as a settlement rail, this is the first concrete line Washington has drawn between a federally supervised tier built around the largest, most widely used stablecoins and a smaller, state-supervised tier.
The GENIUS Act, enacted July 18, 2025, splits stablecoin oversight across several federal bodies. The Federal Register notice names the Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the National Credit Union Administration and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency as “the primary Federal payment stablecoin regulators” for licensing, examination and supervision, while the Treasury-chaired Committee — which also includes the heads of the Federal Reserve and the FDIC — governs the separate state-certification pathway this rule implements. That makes this a distinct action from the Federal Reserve’s own GENIUS Act rulemaking: the Fed’s proposal, approved by its Board on September 24, 2026 and published September 29 (Federal Register 2026-19860), remains an open-for-comment proposed rule covering reserve composition, redemption timing and capital requirements for Fed-supervised issuers. It does not use the $10 billion figure, which is specific to this Treasury-led state-certification pathway.
Per the Federal Register notice, the rule is effective immediately, but the Committee will not actually accept state certifications until the Office of Management and Budget approves the required information collection under the Paperwork Reduction Act; Treasury said it will post a notice on its website once certifications can be submitted. The interim final rule remains open for public comment through November 30, 2026, after which the Committee said it intends to revise the forms and procedures as appropriate based on the comments received.
References
Federal Register – Forms and Procedures for Review of State Certifications by the Stablecoin Certification Review Committee / Federal Register – Implementing the Federal Reserve Board’s Responsibilities Under the GENIUS Act / Forkast News / Yahoo Finance – Treasury’s First GENIUS Act Rule Draws a $10 Billion Line Through the Stablecoin Market
