On August 18, the U.S. Department of the Treasury (Treasury) published a notice of proposed rulemaking in the Federal Register to implement § 3 of the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act (GENIUS Act or Act) — the first comprehensive federal regulatory framework for payment stablecoins in the U.S., enacted on July 18, 2025. A payment stablecoin is a digital asset that is, or is designed to be, used as a means of payment or settlement, and whose issuer is obligated to convert, redeem, or repurchase it for a fixed amount of monetary value while maintaining a stable value relative to that amount. The GENIUS Act expressly excludes national currencies, bank deposits, and securities from the definition of payment stablecoins.
On August 5, the SOLO Network announced a FinCEN-observed bank reliance pilot developed in coordination with the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). The pilot represents the first coordinated engagement across all four agencies to operationalize bank reliance at scale and could significantly reshape how financial institutions approach customer due diligence and identity verification.
The Senate adjourned on August 8, 2026 without holding a final vote on the Clarity Act. However, Senate Majority Leader John Thune filed cloture on the motion to proceed to the Clarity Act shortly before the Senate left for recess, setting up a procedural vote for September 15, 2026, the day after the Senate returns from its August recess.
On July 27, the OCC requested public comment on the forms entities would file to apply to issue payment stablecoins under the GENIUS Act, and the forms foreign issuers would file to register. They show how the licensing and registration process in the OCC’s March 2 proposed rule would work in practice: what an applicant sends in, what its executives have to submit, and what the OCC will use to decide. Comments are due September 25.
Earlier this year, on May 18, the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) Board published its second notice of proposed rulemaking implementing the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act (GENIUS Act). The proposal sets operating standards for permitted payment stablecoin issuers (PPSIs) that are subsidiaries of federally insured credit unions and updates the NCUA’s share insurance and capital rules.
On June 5, the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI) published a Notice of Second Modification to Text of Proposed Regulation under the Digital Financial Assets Law (DFAL). The modifications respond to the Office of Administrative Law’s (OAL) disapproval of the rulemaking: OAL issued a Notice of Disapproval on May 12 and, on May 19, published a Decision of Disapproval describing the deficiencies the DFPI must resolve. Originally proposed on April 4, 2025, the regulations went through a public comment period that closed May 19, 2025, and a first modification on September 29, 2025, which renumbered the rules, modified the Money Transmission Act (MTA) exemption, and made other technical changes. The DFPI submitted its final rulemaking file to OAL on March 30, 2026. It accepted comments on the second modifications from June 5 through June 22, 2026.
On June 12, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued an updated fact sheet on § 314(b) of the USA PATRIOT Act, replacing its December 2020 version. The update clarifies the permissibility of real-time information sharing, expands guidance on fraud-related sharing, and addresses several questions about who can participate and how information can be used.
On June 11, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) released a notice and request for comment on proposed weekly and quarterly reporting forms and instructions for permitted payment stablecoin issuers and foreign payment stablecoin issuers subject to the OCC’s supervision as part of a new information collection required under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1996. The proposal marks a significant next step in the OCC’s implementation of the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act (GENIUS Act), which was enacted on July 18, 2025, and establishes a comprehensive federal regulatory framework for payment stablecoin activities.