US Treasury proposes stablecoin sanctions rules
Elliptic reports the US Treasury has proposed rules that would require stablecoin issuers to comply with sanctions measures in secondary markets under the GENIUS Act. The proposal frames secondary‑market sanctions compliance as a regulatory priority for stablecoin infrastructure. (elliptic.co)
The Treasury Department has proposed rules that would make United States stablecoin issuers police sanctioned activity not just at issuance and redemption, but across secondary-market trading. (treasury.gov) On April 8, 2026, the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and Office of Foreign Assets Control issued the joint proposal under the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act, or GENIUS Act. The proposal was published in the Federal Register on April 10, 2026, with comments due by June 9, 2026. (federalregister.gov) A stablecoin is a digital token designed to hold a fixed value, usually $1, and the GENIUS Act says only permitted issuers can sell them to U.S. users. Congress made that bill law on July 18, 2025, after Senate passage on June 17 and House passage on July 17. (congress.gov) The new proposal would treat permitted payment stablecoin issuers as financial institutions under the Bank Secrecy Act, the same anti-money-laundering law that covers banks and other regulated firms. Treasury’s fact sheet says issuers would have to run anti-money-laundering programs, file suspicious activity reports, and maintain sanctions compliance programs. (fincen.gov) The technical change is in the controls Treasury says issuers must build. The fact sheet says issuers would need the capability, policies, and procedures to “block, freeze, and reject” transactions that violate federal or state law and to comply with lawful orders. (fincen.gov) That reaches beyond the primary market, where an issuer deals directly with a customer minting or redeeming tokens, into the secondary market, where tokens move wallet to wallet after issuance. Elliptic said the proposal makes secondary-market sanctions compliance a regulatory priority for stablecoin infrastructure. (elliptic.co) Treasury said the rule is meant to be “fit for purpose” and tailored to the size and complexity of issuers rather than copied wholesale from bank rules. The department said the framework is supposed to support payment stablecoin innovation while addressing illicit-finance and national-security risks. (treasury.gov) Industry analysts expect the rule to affect a growing field, not a handful of firms. Ledger Insights, citing Treasury’s regulatory impact analysis, reported that FinCEN and Office of Foreign Assets Control expect roughly 50 permitted payment stablecoin issuers to operate on average during the first three years. (ledgerinsights.com) The proposal does not finish the rulebook on its own. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said last month that its own GENIUS Act proposal covered other parts of the law, while Bank Secrecy Act, anti-money-laundering, and sanctions rules would come in a separate Treasury-led rulemaking. (occ.gov) The immediate next step is the public comment period that runs until June 9. After that, Treasury will decide how far to push a model that treats stablecoin issuers less like software companies and more like sanctions-screening financial institutions. (federalregister.gov)
