One year after GENIUS Act, US stablecoin market $310B

President Donald Trump signed the GENIUS Act on July 18, 2025. One year later the U.S. stablecoin market is about $310 billion, and industry firms say the law has made selling stablecoins easier even though core implementing rules remain in proposal form. Banks’ individual compliance reviews continue to slow live deployments.

Federal Reserve researchers estimated stablecoin capitalization at $317 billion on April 6, 2026, up more than 50% from early 2025. They recorded a 50% increase in Ethereum stablecoin transaction volume since the law took effect. Tether and Circle are the largest issuers, with roughly $184 billion in USDT and $73 billion in USDC in circulation.

Kyle Sonlin, president and co-founder of Global Settlement Network, said his team now spends “far less time explaining why stablecoins matter” when talking with governments and institutions. Eric Barbier, chief executive of Triple-A, reported more enterprise customers moving from evaluation to implementation and a “marked reduction” in sales cycles for clients adopting stablecoin payments.

Visa expanded its stablecoin settlement pilot to support nine blockchains by April and reached a $7 billion annualized settlement run rate, a 50% increase from the prior quarter. On July 16, Visa launched an enterprise platform that lets financial institutions and fintechs access stablecoin storage, redemption, minting and burning through a single Visa-managed environment.

Financial firms still must clear separate compliance reviews for each banking partner and jurisdiction. Diogo Cassinelli of Trace Finance called those reviews “months to timelines that should take weeks,” and said the cost repeats when an operator adds a country or another bank. Firms can onboard customers faster under GENIUS but then spend more time connecting them to banks and settlement systems.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency conditionally approved national trust bank applications or conversions involving Ripple, Fidelity Digital Assets, BitGo, Paxos and First National Digital Currency Bank in December 2025. Tether launched a U.S.-specific token, USA₮, in January 2026, with Anchorage Digital Bank as issuer and Cantor Fitzgerald as reserve custodian and preferred primary dealer.

The OCC opened a broad implementation proposal in February and federal agencies published an interagency customer-identification proposal in June; public comments are open through Aug. 21. The Senate Banking Committee advanced the CLARITY Act 15-9 on May 14. The GENIUS Act becomes effective on the earlier of Jan. 18, 2027, or 120 days after regulators issue final implementing regulations.

Industry participants say the first year lowered the cost of persuading customers to use stablecoins. Edwin Mata, CEO and co-founder of Brickken, said regulated stablecoins can serve as the cash leg for tokenized securities, private credit and other on-chain financial products if plumbing and settlement issues are resolved.