Six U.S. financial regulators on Thursday released a 130-page proposed rule that would force stablecoin issuers to verify the identity of every customer before opening an account, the same baseline that applies to banks. The Federal Reserve, Treasury Department, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., National Credit Union Administration and the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network issued the joint notice of proposed rulemaking to carry out the GENIUS Act, last year’s federal stablecoin law. The agencies opened a 60-day public comment period.
A permitted payment stablecoin issuer, or PPSI, is a company licensed under the GENIUS Act to issue dollar-pegged tokens that holders can redeem one-for-one for cash. Under the proposal, these issuers would have to run a customer identification program, the bank-style screening process used to confirm who is opening an account.
Key takeaways
- Six U.S. agencies proposed a rule requiring stablecoin issuers to verify customer identities under the GENIUS Act, with a 60-day comment window.
- Issuers would collect each customer’s legal name, date of birth or formation date, physical address and a government-issued ID number before opening an account.
- Fed Governor Michael Barr warned the framework still leaves room for illicit finance in secondary-market trading of stablecoins.
- The rule lands as the U.S. stablecoin market sits above $320 billion, led by Tether’s USDT and Circle’s USDC.
Published: June 19, 2026, 09:00 UTC
Why the rule arrived now
The proposal is the latest step in putting the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act into practice. President Donald Trump signed the law on July 18, 2025, making it the first major federal statute to bring a core part of the crypto industry under U.S. financial regulation. The law directs that stablecoin issuers be treated as financial institutions under the Bank Secrecy Act and maintain working systems to verify customer identities, a measure aimed at money laundering, illicit finance and terrorism funding.
Regulators issued a preliminary request for input in September and received 450 comments. Thursday’s notice moves the process to a formal rulemaking stage, which carries its own comment period and review before the agencies can write final joint rules and start enforcing them. Statutory implementation rules under the GENIUS Act are due by July 18, 2026.
What issuers would have to collect
The draft sets a clear floor for customer screening. Issuers would need reasonable procedures for verifying the identity of anyone seeking to open an account, keeping records of the information used to do so, including name, address and other identifying details, and checking each customer against government lists of known or suspected terrorists. In practice that means gathering a legal name, a date of birth or formation date, a physical address and a government-issued identification number at signup.
That standard mirrors the checks banks and brokerages already run, and it would close one of the gaps critics have flagged since the law passed. Regulators on both sides of the Atlantic have spent the past year debating how far traditional financial rules should reach into tokens that move on public blockchains.
Who is affected
The market the rule governs is large and growing. Stablecoin supply climbed above $320 billion in May, with Tether’s USDT holding roughly 58% of the field at about $185 billion and Circle’s USDC near $78 billion. The two tokens account for more than 95% of outstanding supply, but a wave of banks and payment firms has pushed into the business since the GENIUS Act passed.
Those new entrants now have a clearer compliance target, along with the cost of building identity systems at scale. Banks had earlier asked regulators to slow the rollout so they could prepare. The proposal also arrives during a jittery market, with bitcoin slipping below $63,000 after a hawkish Federal Reserve meeting this week pushed traders toward caution.
The dissent and what comes next
Not every Fed official was satisfied. Governor Michael Barr, the central bank’s former supervisory chief, said he remains concerned the GENIUS Act framework “does not do enough so far to address the risks of illicit finance conducted through secondary market transactions in payment stablecoins.” Barr said he would watch whether the identity rules get extended beyond account opening to cover later trading. The 130-page proposal itself asks for feedback on that exact question.
The Treasury’s FinCEN has also pursued a related anti-money-laundering rule for stablecoin issuers, filed in April. After the 60-day comment period closes, the agencies will review the responses before issuing final rules. For now, issuers and the banks circling the market have a detailed picture of the identity checks Washington expects them to run.
Frequently asked questions
What is a permitted payment stablecoin issuer?
It is a company licensed under the GENIUS Act to issue U.S. dollar stablecoins that holders can redeem for cash. The proposed rule would treat these issuers as financial institutions under the Bank Secrecy Act, subject to the same customer-identity duties as banks.
What information would stablecoin issuers have to collect?
Each new customer would provide a legal name, a date of birth or formation date, a physical address and a government-issued identification number. Issuers would verify the identity, keep records and screen customers against government terrorist watchlists.
When could the rule take effect?
The agencies opened a 60-day comment period on June 18, 2026. They will review responses before writing final joint rules. Statutory GENIUS Act implementation rules are due by July 18, 2026, though enforcement of the identity provisions would follow the final rulemaking.
