Joint Trades Letter to U.S. Treasury on Implementation of the GENIUS Act

To whom it may concern:

The undersigned trade associations^[1] (the "Associations") appreciate the opportunity to respond to the advance notice of proposed rulemaking ("ANPR") issued by the U.S. Department of the Treasury regarding the implementation of the recently enacted Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act or GENIUS Act.^[2] The Associations appreciate the Treasury Department's careful consideration of the numerous significant policy questions that the GENIUS Act raises and their impact on the regulations that it and other federal and state agencies must issue to implement the statute. Given the complexity of the numerous questions posed in the ANPR, the Associations look forward to continued engagement and anticipate providing additional input with respect to these important topics as the process of implementing the GENIUS Act continues.

The Associations believe that it will be critical that the Treasury Department and applicable regulators craft regulations under the GENIUS Act that preserve the benefits of payment stablecoins for their intended use in payments and settlements, without causing undue and unnecessary risks for consumers, other stablecoin holders or users, competition, credit availability, illicit finance or financial stability. The Associations and their members accordingly urge the Treasury Department to do the following in the rules that it will issue under the GENIUS Act and, where appropriate, to coordinate with other agencies to do so in the regulations that they will issue:

1. Implement the GENIUS Act's prohibition on the payment of interest or yield on payment stablecoins in a manner that is consistent with Congress's intent that such payments will be broadly prohibited, whether paid directly by an issuer or indirectly by an issuer's affiliates or partners.
2. Limit the risk of harmful regulatory arbitrage by precluding the possibility that material differences will arise among federal, state and foreign payment stablecoin regulatory regimes and by requiring that large permitted payment stablecoin issuers ("PPSIs") be subject to federal regulation.
3. Establish appropriate requirements and oversight to combat illicit finance and national security risks posed by PPSIs, payment stablecoins and digital asset service providers ("DASPs") and ensure relevant obligations are consistent between PPSIs, DASPs and banks.
4. Interpret the GENIUS Act's prohibition on payment stablecoin issuance by public or foreign companies not predominantly engaged in financial activities in a fashion that respects the longstanding U.S. policy of separating banking and commercial activities and prevents the emergence of associated risks, including undue concentration of economic power.
5. Ensure that PPSIs hold reserves that back their payment stablecoins in custody and that all custodians for those reserves and payment stablecoins satisfy the highest standards for custody and safekeeping to protect customers, maintain market integrity, foster confidence and minimize conflicts of interest.
6. Confirm that PPSIs and payment stablecoins are subject to the same robust consumer protections applicable to other institutions and products that similarly facilitate payments and settlement.
7. Interpret the definition of "payment stablecoin" in the GENIUS Act to prevent loopholes and clarify the statute's application to tokenized products issued by insured banks.
8. Interpret the obligations applicable to DASPs to uphold, and prevent evasion of, the requirement that the only payment stablecoins that DASPs may offer or sell in the United States are those issued by a PPSI or by a qualifying foreign payment stablecoin issuer (an "FPSI").

These recommendations, including their specific implications for the regulations that will be issued to implement the GENIUS Act, are described further in the following sections.

To read the full comment letter, please click here, or click on the download button below.

[1] Please see Annex A for a description of the Associations.

[2] Department of the Treasury, GENIUS Act Implementation, Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, 90 Fed. Reg. 45,159 (Sept. 19, 2025).