GENIUS Has Yet to Take Effect, Despite Some Firms Claiming to Be ‘Regulated’ and ‘Compliant’

When the GENIUS Act was signed into law on July 18, 2025, the crypto industry hailed it as a significant piece of legislation globally, proposing federal regulations for stablecoins in the United States.

Just over three months later, GENIUS has yet to go into effect — meaning that no stablecoin or stablecoin issuer is actively regulated by the it — even as established and new players position themselves to comply with the upcoming rules.

Despite that, Anchorage Digital Bank, known for being the only crypto-focused bank with a charter from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), announced earlier this month that it would be issuing “America’s first federally regulated stablecoin,” USDtb, in partnership with Ethena Labs, the issuer of synthetic dollar asset USDe.

Originally launched by Ethena Labs in December 2024, USDtb is backed largely by BlackRock’s tokenized U.S. Treasury fund, BUIDL, which has over $2.8 billion in assets, per RWAxyz. The stablecoin was previously issued outside of the U.S., with Ethena Labs handling minting and redemptions.

In an Oct. 13 post on X, Ethena confirmed that it had transitioned the USDtb smart contract to Anchorage Digital, calling it a “monumental onshoring making USDtb the first federally-regulated stablecoin issued in a compliant manner under the GENIUS Act.”

But competitors and onlookers caution that it’s technically still early for such statements, arguing that the claims risk misleading investors in “low-information environments.”

Questions on Implementation

As legal and industry observers caution, “onshoring” USDtb via a regulated firm like Anchorage is not the same as statutory approval under a particular law.

Facundo Werning, head of LATAM at stablecoin startup Agora, pointed out in an Oct. 14 post on X that “no one is regulated by GENIUS,” since the act, while law, hasn’t yet gone into effect.

In commentary to The Defiant, Nicole Dyskant, co-founder RegDoor, an agentic policy platform that helps regulated entities meet complex requirements, explained that despite being signed into law, details as to how the GENIUS Act will be implemented remain unclear.

As Dyskant notes, just last month, the U.S. Treasury published an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to gather public feedback on how the law should be implemented, following a separate request for comment in August.

“The public comment period runs until November 4, 2025, after which the agencies will draft and release final regulations. The GENIUS Act will officially take effect either 120 days after those final rules are published or 18 months after enactment, whichever comes first. Until then, it remains a legal framework awaiting activation rather than a fully functioning regime,” Dyskant clarified to The Defiant.

Analyses from late July by U.S. law firms including WilmerHale, Latham & Watkins, and DLA Piper emphasize that only an approved “permitted payment stablecoin issuer” (PPSI) may issue or market a payment stablecoin in the U.S., and that those approvals can’t exist until rulemaking is complete. Until then, the GENIUS isn’t yet an active regulatory regime.

Zach Rosenberg, general counsel at Ethena Labs, acknowledged that limitation in a reply on X, confirming that GENIUS indeed “does not currently regulate anyone.” He clarified that Ethena’s statement about operating “in a compliant manner under the GENIUS Act” meant the company is structuring USDtb in accordance with the law’s provisions, not that it is already regulated under the act.

Dyskant explained that the wording used by firms like Ethena Labs and Anchorage should be interpreted more as their intention or aspiration, rather than strictly as legal claims:

Other Players

But what about Circle’s USDC? The second-largest stablecoin globally, and the largest U.S.-issued stablecoin, USDC has long been considered the most legally cautious and transparent USD stablecoin, with regular reserve attestations and U.S. banking relationships.

On its official page dedicated to the GENIUS Act, Circle implies that USDC’s cautious approach positions it for compliance, without yet making any explicit claims. The Defiant reached out to Circle for more information on the firm’s preparations for GENIUS taking effect, but hasn’t heard back at press time.

Tether, the issuer of the world’s largest stablecoin USDT, recently announced that it has plans to join the regulated U.S. stablecoin sector. The stablecoin giant announced last month that is will issue a dedicated U.S.-issued stablecoin, USAT, designed to be GENIUS-compliant. As The Defiant reported, former White House adviser Bo Hines will serve as CEO of USAT, while Anchorage Digital will also handle USAT issuance.

Tether did not respond to The Defiant’s request for comment on its compliance preparations by press time.

Commenting on the regulatory landscape as it stands, Dyskant concluded that at this stage “no stablecoin can be considered fully GENIUS-compliant, since the regulatory requirements that define compliance have not yet been finalized nor, of course, enforced.”