On June 17, local time, the “Guiding and Enhancing the Nation’s Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act of 2025” (commonly known as the “GENIUS Act”) was passed in the U.S. Senate with a vote of 68 in favor and 30 against. The bill now moves to the House of Representatives for a vote, after which it will be signed into law by the President if approved.
Alaric believes that the Trump administration aims to ensure passage of the bill before the August congressional recess.
Widely regarded as the regulatory framework for stablecoins in the United States, the GENIUS Act mandates that stablecoins must be issued based on fully reserved fiat assets and imposes stringent requirements on reserve composition, management, and disclosure. In terms of reserve requirements, stablecoins must be backed at a minimum 1:1 ratio by highly liquid assets, including U.S. dollar cash, demand deposits, U.S. Treasury securities maturing within 93 days, repurchase agreements, reverse repurchase agreements, money market funds that invest solely in the aforementioned assets, as well as tokenized versions of these assets that comply with applicable laws.
The act is aimed at advancing U.S. dollar-denominated stablecoins. Compliant issuers can include not only entities registered in the United States, but also foreign-registered entities that apply for registration with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). This implies that both onshore and offshore U.S. dollar stablecoins will be subject to direct regulatory oversight.
Alaric estimates that more than 70% of U.S. dollar stablecoins are issued based on offshore dollars. For example, the largest dollar-based stablecoin, USDT issued by Tether, accounts for 62% of the entire stablecoin market and falls into this category.
The Trump administration has repeatedly expressed support for the development of U.S. dollar stablecoins. At the recent Bitcoin 2025 conference, Vice President Vance reiterated the importance of stablecoins for two main reasons: first, to modernize and digitize America’s payment and financial infrastructure; second, to consolidate and enhance the dollar’s international role by creating trillions of dollars in new demand for U.S. Treasury bonds in the coming years.
According to cryptocurrency data tracking and analytics platform CoinMarketCap, the global stablecoin market currently totals approximately $250 billion, of which 99% are U.S. dollar stablecoins—far exceeding the dollar’s 50% share in global payment currencies. Since the beginning of June, the average daily trading volume of U.S. dollar stablecoins has exceeded $100 billion, significantly surpassing the combined trading volume of Bitcoin and Ethereum (ETH). In the crypto asset trading market, over two-thirds of transactions use stablecoins as the quote currency.
Based on the Q1 financial disclosures of Tether and Circle, it can be estimated that U.S. Treasuries account for at least 80% of the reserve assets supporting the $250 billion in stablecoins—equivalent to $200 billion in additional demand for U.S. Treasuries. Standard Chartered Bank forecasts that the stablecoin market will reach $2 trillion by 2028, corresponding to $1.2 trillion to $1.6 trillion in additional demand for U.S. Treasuries, making stablecoin issuers the second-largest buyers of U.S. debt after the Federal Reserve.
Recently, several major U.S. tech and retail companies have been exploring the application of stablecoins. This week, reports indicate that Walmart (WMT.US), Amazon (AMZN.US), and online travel giant Expedia (EXPE.US) have considered issuing their own U.S.-based stablecoins to save billions of dollars annually in credit card processing fees. Meta (formerly Facebook) is also reportedly evaluating the integration of stablecoins to reduce payment costs compared to fiat currencies. In 2019, Meta planned to launch the Libra stablecoin project (later renamed Diem), which would have enabled payments on platforms like Facebook and WhatsApp, but the initiative was ultimately shut down under pressure from Congress and other regulatory bodies.