On Monday Bitcoin Magazine, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent asked the public to help decide who gets to issue dollars on a blockchain. The Treasury opened a formal comment period on a proposed rule that would clarify which firms need a license to issue payment stablecoins under the GENIUS Act.
The law is already on the books. Former President Donald Trump signed the GENIUS Act in 2025, letting banks and other issuers back tokens with assets such as U.S. Treasuries and report their reserves every month. What it did not do was write the implementing rules that give those words force — and that gap is exactly what Treasury is now filling.
“Treasury is moving quickly to implement that framework,” Bessent said in a statement, calling the GENIUS Act a “landmark framework and clear rules of the road for payment stablecoins” and arguing it would “keep America the crypto capital of the world” Bitcoin Magazine. He tied the rule to the dollar’s reserve status and a race he says the U.S. cannot afford to lose.
What Treasury is actually asking
The questions officials put to stakeholders are narrower than the headline suggests. They want to know whether key terms are defined tightly enough, exactly when a stablecoin counts as “issued,” and what due-diligence duties fall on service providers that lean on a foreign issuer’s compliance promises. For an industry that has operated in regulatory fog, those definitions are where the real constraints will live.
The consultation lands as Congress chases the next piece of crypto law. Lawmakers had aimed for a vote on the market-structure bill, the Clarity Act, this month, but pushed it to September. Bessent has urged them to finish it; Trump argued this month that passing it is what separates the U.S. from China.
The clock is already running
From January 18, 2027, a person generally may not issue a payment stablecoin in the United States without a federal or state license, according to the proposed timeline Bitcoin Magazine. Stricter prohibitions on offering and selling unlicensed stablecoins follow on July 18, 2028. zBrandco previously traced the run-up to those deadlines Stablecoin Rules Hit GENIUS Act Deadline Before July FOMC.
Bitcoin Magazine, the outlet that first reported the consultation, frames the rulemaking as a test of whether the U.S. can turn landmark legislation into working market rules Bitcoin Magazine on the App Store. The comment window is the public’s one scheduled chance to shape the answer.
For issuers and the payment apps built on them, the next few weeks decide more than wording. A license regime drafted without their input becomes the floor they must clear for years.
