The statutory one-year deadline under the U.S. GENIUS Act for final stablecoin rules expired on July 18, 2026, with none of the seven federal regulators completing their final rulemakings by that date.
The GENIUS Act, described in the source as the main U.S. stablecoin regulatory law, was signed on July 18, 2025 and required seven federal agencies to complete final implementation rules within one year. The Block reported that the Federal Reserve had not even reached the proposed-rule stage by the deadline.
Six agencies issued proposals, while the Fed has not
The law requires seven federal bodies to publish their own final stablecoin rules: the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Federal Reserve, the National Credit Union Administration, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, the Treasury Department, and the Office of Foreign Assets Control.
As of July 18, 2026, six of those agencies — OCC, FDIC, NCUA, FinCEN, Treasury, and OFAC — had published Notices of Proposed Rulemaking between December 2025 and May 2026. None had finished a final version. The Fed had not issued a proposed rule at all.
No fallback mechanism after the missed deadline
Unlike some other financial laws, the GENIUS Act does not contain an automatic implementation clause if the deadline is missed. It also does not provide a temporary guidance framework as a backup. That leaves stablecoin issuers operating in a period where the old structure no longer applies, while the new structure has not formally taken effect.
The source noted that this is not unusual in U.S. regulatory history. Under the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission missed about 40% of their regulatory deadlines, yet those delays did not invalidate the broader legislation. The rules were eventually implemented in delayed form.
Framework takes effect on an earlier-of basis
The GENIUS Act uses an earlier-of standard for the broader framework to become effective: 120 days after final rules are published, or January 18, 2027 at the latest, whichever comes first.
That means even if agencies continue to delay final rules, the new stablecoin supervisory framework will still take full effect by January 18, 2027. At that point, issuers such as USDC and USDT will have to operate under the core provisions of the GENIUS Act.