Using crypto and stablecoins to pay for things, from payment cards and merchant checkout to payroll, remittances and cross-border settlement.
The Senate's crypto market structure bill, known as the CLARITY Act, faces mounting pressure to advance after months of delays caused by negotiations over stablecoin yield provisions. Senator Thom Tillis signals readiness to move forward to hearings as available Senate floor time diminishes and political uncertainty around leadership grows.
BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, submitted a comment letter opposing a potential 20% cap on tokenized reserve assets in the GENIUS Act, which would limit products like its BUIDL fund. The firm urged the OCC to drop the cap idea and expand eligible assets.
Coinbase and Senate leaders finalized a deal on stablecoin reward provisions, resolving a standoff with the banking lobby. The compromise prohibits rewards that mimic bank deposits while allowing 'bona fide' transactions, clearing a key obstacle for the CLARITY Act's advancement.
The U.S. Treasury Department issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on April 8 requiring payment stablecoin issuers to implement anti-money laundering and sanctions compliance measures for secondary market transactions. The proposal sets new standards for combating illicit finance in stablecoin markets.
The Trump administration backed a proposal for stablecoin issuers to offer yield to investors, drawing pushback from the American Bankers Association which disputes White House claims that stablecoin yield doesn't threaten bank deposits.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong publicly supported passing the CLARITY Act after Treasury Secretary Bessent urged Congress to advance the crypto bill, reversing the company's earlier withdrawal of support over stablecoin reward provisions.
White House Council of Economic Advisers released analysis finding that banning stablecoin yield products would boost community bank lending by only 0.02% while imposing significant costs on consumers, countering banking industry lobbying efforts in the CLARITY Act debate.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation approved a proposed rule establishing federal oversight standards for stablecoin issuers, including reserve requirements limiting 40% of reserves at a single custodian. The proposal explicitly excludes stablecoins from deposit insurance protections.
Treasury's FinCEN and OFAC jointly proposed a rule on April 10, 2026, formally treating stablecoin issuers as financial institutions under the Bank Secrecy Act. Issuers must implement full AML/CFT programs with customer due diligence, suspicious activity reporting, and the technical capability to block or freeze illicit on-chain transactions, alongside mandatory OFAC sanctions screening.
Senate Banking Committee Chair Tim Scott is expected to schedule a markup of the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act in the final two weeks of April, with renewed optimism following revised stablecoin yield compromise language.
Stablecoin monthly transaction volume reached $7.2 trillion in February 2026, exceeding the $6.8 trillion processed by the US Automated Clearing House (ACH) network for the first time. Total stablecoin supply reached $315 billion in Q1 2026.
The US Department of the Treasury published an 87-page notice of proposed rulemaking seeking public comment on state-level regulatory regimes for stablecoins with market caps under $10 billion, marking the first formal implementation step of the GENIUS Act.
Senators and the White House have reached a tentative agreement to resolve the contentious stablecoin yield restrictions in the CLARITY Act, though the compromise has drawn mixed reactions from the crypto industry. Coinbase reportedly continues to oppose the updated draft language despite the agreement.
Circle Internet Group shares fell as much as 22% in their worst day ever after draft provisions in the CLARITY Act indicated potential limits on stablecoin yield distribution. The proposed legislation may restrict rewards on stablecoin balances, though analysts at Bernstein argue the selloff is overdone as restrictions target distributors rather than issuers.
The OCC released a 376-page proposed rule on February 25, 2026, marking the first substantive federal regulatory framework for payment stablecoin issuance under the GENIUS Act. The proposal covers licensing, 100% reserve backing, a two-business-day redemption window, a $5M minimum capital floor, and a strict prohibition on paying yield to holders.
The FDIC Board approved its first proposed rule under the GENIUS Act on December 16, 2025, establishing the application process for FDIC-supervised banks seeking to issue payment stablecoins through a subsidiary. The rule sets filing requirements, evaluation factors, processing timelines, and an appeals process, with safety and soundness as the primary criterion.
President Trump signed the GENIUS Act into law on July 18, 2025, making it the first federal legislation to regulate cryptocurrency in U.S. history. The law requires 100% reserve backing for payment stablecoins, designates the OCC as primary regulator for non-bank issuers, and explicitly classifies compliant stablecoins as neither securities nor commodities.
Amazon and Walmart are exploring launching their own U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoins to streamline payments and bypass traditional banking systems. The move aligns with the pending GENIUS Act, which would provide a regulatory framework for such digital assets.
