US Treasury Proposes Stablecoin Rules, Impacting Altcoin Markets

Treasury's new stablecoin rules aim to provide regulatory certainty for businesses in the US. The GENIUS Act, passed by Congress in July 2025, sets a framework for payment stablecoins and requires issuers to obtain a US license to reach American users.

The two key dates are January 18, 2027, when unlicensed issuance inside the country ends, and July 18, 2028, when platforms generally cannot sell payment stablecoins to US persons. Currently, no issuer has obtained this license, but five trust bank charters have been approved on a conditional basis: Circle, Ripple, Paxos, Fidelity Digital Assets, and BitGo.

In Europe, the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) rules set a similar test, and the result is that users have converted to USDC. Binance delisted USDT from European users in March 2025 and pointed them toward USDC.

Six altcoins could benefit from Treasury's new stablecoin rules: Hyperliquid, Arbitrum, Polygon, Solana, Ethereum, and XRP. These chains already have a significant portion of their stablecoin supply held by licensed issuers, such as Circle for USDC.