On June 18, 2026, the US Federal Reserve, together with FinCEN, the OCC, the FDIC, and the NCUA, published a joint draft rule for payment-focused stablecoin issuers under the GENIUS Act (passed July 2025). The proposal zeroes in on the primary market — where large corporate clients like exchanges, banks, institutional investors, wallet providers, and fintech firms interact directly with issuers for token minting and redemption. Individual retail users trading on secondary markets are not directly affected.
Industry leaders already follow similar practices. Circle's Circle Mint requires institutional verification, linked bank accounts, and transaction thresholds. Tether only allows verified institutional clients to mint or redeem USDT, with a minimum deposit of $100,000. The draft turns these internal measures into formal regulatory obligations. Issuers must implement US KYC procedures, starting with a Customer Identification Program (CIP). Corporate clients need to provide identifying information, which issuers must screen against terror, sanctions, and illicit finance lists.
Stablecoin issuers classified as financial institutions
The draft classifies stablecoin issuers as financial institutions under the Bank Secrecy Act, extending anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing obligations to the payment stablecoin sector. This aligns with the GENIUS Act, which already recognized issuers as financial institutions for sanctions, AML, and BSA purposes. The draft now turns those principles into concrete, actionable rules. Once published in the Federal Register, a 60-day public comment period will open for market participants, compliance experts, and industry groups.
Existing cooperation formalized
In April 2026, Tether froze $344 million in USDT in cooperation with OFAC and US law enforcement, showing that cooperation existed even without a dedicated CIP rule. The new regulation appears more focused on documenting existing collaboration than building a new system from scratch. Tether has previously resisted some frameworks — it refused to register under Europe's MiCA rules, warning those requirements could pose risks. Because the US draft targets institutional rather than retail users, major issuers may find this model more acceptable. The key shift: controls already used by top stablecoin issuers are now becoming explicit regulatory mandates.