This year, Tether rolled out USAT – launched with US standards in mind and issued by US banking partner Anchorage Digital. For the moment, its use remains relatively low.
“Non-compliant stablecoins will not be able to be used by U.S. institutions when the safe harbor expires in 2028, but we don’t expect the market to wait,” said Kevin Wysocki, head of policy at Anchorage Digital, the crypto-native bank that manages a number of stablecoins. He said the company believes institutional users will move toward “compliant, bank-issued digital dollars well in advance of this deadline.”
Are they two years old?
GENIUS has included a three-year grace period for compliance, with two years remaining, after which US crypto platforms will no longer be able to offer stablecoins whose issuers have not checked all the regulatory boxes. However, there appears to be some disagreement over whether foreign issuers are meant to benefit from the same safe harbor. Some financial industry lawyers assume Tether has until July 18, 2028 to comply, but others have suggested foreign issuers should comply by the time GENIUS officially goes live, which is likely six months from now, in January.
“Once the GENIUS Act takes effect, foreign issuers will need to immediately comply with legal orders to seize and freeze coins held by illicit actors, but they will have approximately two additional years to prepare for the additional requirements so that their coins can remain eligible for listing on U.S. centralized trading platforms,” said Justin Levine, an attorney at Davis Polk who advises clients on stablecoin issues, adding that one of those remaining requirements — registration with the Office of the Comptroller currency – will likely require a “significant undertaking”
