Meanwhile, GENIUS
However, last year’s crypto legislative success in converting the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act into law is still an ongoing focus of the Treasury and banking regulators assigned to implement it.
Pettit, who had a hand in creating the GENIUS Act as a Senate staffer, said the banking agencies and Treasury are writing GENIUS rules and facing near-term deadlines in the law.
“We’re very cognizant of the different deadlines in front of us,” Pettit said. “I think we’re well on track to make all those deadlines.”
Witt noted that companies are advertising their “GENIUS-compliant stablecoins,” though that status doesn’t yet exist in the absence of final rules.
“But people skating to where the puck is going and trying to set up their policies, their procedures and their structures in order to be GENIUS-compliant is very healthy,” the White House adviser said. Witt said a two-headed stablecoin system will result when GENIUS is in place, between the tokens that comply and those that don’t, and the market will have to decide its preference.
“I would think it’s probably going to reward those that are operating in conformity with the regulatory jurisdiction,” Witt said, adding that the market will expand as asset tokenization catches fire with the arrival of U.S. oversight — as begun last week at the SEC.
