On 18 July 2025, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (US SEC) Commissioner Hester M. Peirce issued a statement marking the signing of the US GENIUS Act into law as an important milestone for regulatory clarity in crypto, confirming payment stablecoins are not securities, noting their broad use as payments mechanisms, and aiming to protect users and the financial system through oversight by state and federal banking regulators while urging the US SEC to provide guidance for registrants’ use of stablecoins.
In her statement titled “Smart Start: Statement on the GENIUS Act,” US SEC Commissioner Hester M. Peirce emphasised the law’s role in advancing crypto regulation. “The signing of the GENIUS Act into law marks an important milestone in the effort to bring regulatory clarity to crypto—a necessary prerequisite for innovation in our markets to flourish and for the American public to benefit from that innovation,” Peirce stated. She continued: “The new law confirms that payment stablecoins are not securities. People have voted with their dollars, privately issued stablecoins already enjoy broad use as a payments mechanism. The GENIUS Act, by putting a regulatory framework around them, aims to protect current and future users and the financial system. The GENIUS Act charges state and federal banking regulators with overseeing payment stablecoin issuers. This clear direction from Congress also should serve as a catalyst for the SEC to provide guidance on how SEC registrants can use, and accommodate their customers’ use of, payment stablecoins. I invite investors and market participants regulated by the SEC to engage with the Crypto Task Force on what the Commission needs to do, in light of the GENIUS Act, to ensure that SEC registrants interacting with payment stablecoins can serve their customers effectively, efficiently, and safely.”
The US GENIUS Act is the first federal legislation dedicated to digital assets in the US, with bipartisan consensus on the importance of stablecoins. By delineating responsibilities away from the US SEC for stablecoin issuance, the US GENIUS Act may encourage further guidance from the US SEC on integration within securities markets, as suggested by Commissioner Peirce’s call for engagement with the Crypto Task Force.
(Source: https://www.sec.gov/newsroom/speeches-statements/peirce-statement-genius-act-071825)
