Payment Stablecoin
A digital asset designed to maintain a stable value for use as a means of payment or settlement; under the GENIUS Act (2025), it may be issued only by permitted issuers holding one-to-one reserves once the Act takes effect (the earlier of January 18, 2027 or 120 days after final implementing rules; the primary federal regulators' implementing rules were still at the proposal stage as of September 2026).
A payment stablecoin is a digital asset designed to hold a stable value, typically pegged one-to-one to the U.S. dollar, and used as a means of payment or settlement rather than as a speculative investment.
The GENIUS Act, enacted in July 2025, created the first federal framework for payment stablecoins. It limits issuance to permitted payment stablecoin issuers, requires issuers to hold reserves of specified liquid assets on at least a one-to-one basis, and, once effective, treats permitted issuers as financial institutions under the Bank Secrecy Act. The OCC, FDIC, Federal Reserve, NCUA, Treasury and FinCEN proposed implementing rules through 2026.
For a company building a stablecoin product, permitted-issuer status, reserve composition and attestation, redemption rights, and BSA/AML obligations are threshold design questions. The stablecoin framework is distinct from the broader crypto market-structure legislation that remained pending in Congress as of mid-2026.