One Year of the GENIUS Act: Stablecoins Go Mainstream

One year after President Donald Trump signed the GENIUS Act into law, the stablecoin market has grown into a $310 billion powerhouse. This legislation created a federal framework for the industry, mandating liquid reserves and regular disclosures. Since the law took effect, the market has seen a 50 percent jump in total capitalization and a similar rise in transaction volume on the Ethereum network.

Institutional interest is moving quickly from theory to practice. Payment providers report that sales cycles are shrinking as companies stop asking why they should use stablecoins and start asking how. Major players like Visa are already scaling their own enterprise platforms, while new ventures are building infrastructure to handle everything from tokenized securities to private credit using these regulated digital dollars.

Despite this progress, banking friction remains a hurdle. Even with federal guidance, cross border payment companies still face inconsistent compliance reviews at individual banks. These reviews can add months to project timelines, creating a bottleneck that hits smaller startups harder than established firms with large legal departments.

As we look ahead, the industry is waiting on the finalization of agency rules currently open for public comment through August 21. While the GENIUS Act provided a clear signal to the market, the speed of future growth will depend on how well federal agencies create a consistent standard that banks can follow without repeating the same compliance checks for every new transaction.