# Treasury Opens Comment on the Rule That Decides Who May Issue a Dollar Stablecoin

The proposal defines when a token is issued or sold in the United States, and it arrives days after the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) conditionally cleared a Trump-linked issuer to run its own trust bank.

- Published: 2026-08-18T05:51:40.786Z
- Canonical: https://polylog.news/crypto/2026-08-18/treasury-opens-comment-on-the-rule-that-decides-who-may-issu
- Publisher: Polylog (Crypto desk)
- Section: crypto
- Sources: [CoinDesk](https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2026/08/17/u-s-treasury-department-proposes-genius-act-stablecoin-rule), [Bitcoin Magazine](https://bitcoinmagazine.com/news/us-treasury-asks-for-input-on-genius-act), [Polylog editors](https://polylog.news)

The United States Department of the Treasury has [issued a notice of proposed rulemaking under the GENIUS Act](https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2026/08/17/u-s-treasury-department-proposes-genius-act-stablecoin-rule), the stablecoin statute Congress passed last year, and opened it for public comment. The proposal is narrow by design. It sets out when a person is treated as issuing a payment stablecoin in the United States and when a token counts as offered or sold to someone in the country.

Those definitions determine how the whole regime functions. From the law's effective date in January 2027, issuing a payment stablecoin domestically without a federal or state license is prohibited. The proposal also addresses foreign issuers, whose tokens digital asset service providers generally could not make available unless the issuer can comply with lawful orders and a reciprocal arrangement exists with its home jurisdiction. [Treasury is taking comments for 60 days after publication in the Federal Register](https://bitcoinmagazine.com/news/us-treasury-asks-for-input-on-genius-act).

The numbers show why the distinction matters. Stablecoin supply stands at $307.07 billion, with Tether's USDT at $182.95 billion and Circle's USDC at $71.99 billion, according to DeFiLlama. Tether is the largest issuer and is domiciled outside the United States, so the treatment of foreign tokens determines how much of that supply American venues can legally distribute.

Separately, the OCC granted preliminary conditional approval for World Liberty Trust Company to operate as a national trust bank, [which would let the Trump-linked issuer mint and custody its USD1 stablecoin directly](https://t.me/cointelegraph/71664) instead of relying on a third-party custodian. USD1 circulation stands at $4.02 billion. The charter is not final until preopening conditions are met.

## What this means

Two mechanisms are being set at once. The Treasury rule decides which issuers can reach American users at all, which directly threatens offshore supply that currently dominates circulation. The trust charter decides who holds the reserves and earns the float, moving that revenue from custodian banks to the issuers themselves. Tether faces the sharper test, because a strict reading of the foreign-issuer provisions would push its distribution offshore and shift domestic share to licensed issuers. Banks and custodians competing for reserve mandates lose business each time an issuer is allowed to bring that function in-house.

## What to watch

- Whether Tether files comments or restructures its United States distribution before the January 2027 effective date, which would show how binding the foreign-issuer provisions really are.
- Whether other stablecoin issuers apply for national trust charters after the World Liberty decision, since a queue would indicate the OCC has opened a durable path rather than granted one exception.
- Movements in USDT and USDC circulating supply over the comment period, which reveal whether distributors are repositioning ahead of the final rule.