Bipartisan senators tell Treasury: Don't leave the GENIUS Act's state stablecoin door half-open 🚪

A bipartisan group of US senators, led by Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis, is pressing the Treasury to make sure state regulators can play a meaningful role in overseeing stablecoin issuers as the department drafts rules to implement the GENIUS Act. In a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Tuesday, the lawmakers argued it was critical that the department implement a section of the law giving a pathway for certain issuers to be supervised at the state level "in a manner that preserves and promotes State participation."

Under the GENIUS Act, issuers whose stablecoins have a market value of $10 billion or less can be regulated by a state authority if that state adopts rules largely similar to the federal law. According to CoinGecko, only three stablecoins currently sit above that threshold — Tether (USDT), USDC (USDC) and USDS (USDS), formerly DAI — meaning every other stablecoin would, in principle, fall under state oversight. President Donald Trump signed the GENIUS Act into law in July 2025, and the Treasury opened a public comment period on the state-level framework in April.

The senators said the Treasury's proposal "did not address the timeline and procedural requirements related to State certification," creating "uncertainty for States" and raising the possibility that the process could be read as "a one-time window that effectively bars future certifications." They added that "Congress clearly sought to preserve the dual banking system and the crucial role of State banking agencies in supervising this market," and argued that varying state legislative calendars require a flexible certification framework. "States must be able to develop and seek certification of stablecoin regulatory regimes as demand for these charters materializes and as legislative schedules permit," the letter said.

Republican Senators Bill Hagerty, Kevin Cramer and Pete Ricketts joined the letter, along with Democratic Senators Kirsten Gillibrand, Angela Alsobrooks and Catherine Cortez Masto. Public comments on the Treasury's proposal closed on June 2, and the department is now preparing a final rule for publication in the Federal Register.