Treasury’s AML push for stablecoins
The U.S. Treasury proposed anti‑money‑laundering rules that would require stablecoin issuers to register as money‑services businesses and apply customer due diligence and sanctions screening while preserving legal support for payment stablecoins on public blockchains. The proposal frames issuer registration and transaction‑screening as explicit regulatory obligations rather than optional controls, putting operational compliance systems front and center for issuers and middleware providers. (coinpaprika.com)
The Treasury Department has proposed rules that would put stablecoin issuers under U.S. anti-money-laundering and sanctions requirements for the first time. (federalregister.gov) The April 10 proposal was issued jointly by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and the Office of Foreign Assets Control. It would treat permitted payment stablecoin issuers as financial institutions under the Bank Secrecy Act and open a public comment period through June 9, 2026. (federalregister.gov) In plain terms, a stablecoin is a digital token designed to hold a fixed value, usually $1, and move on a public blockchain like a transferable digital dollar. The proposal would require issuers to run anti-money-laundering programs, maintain sanctions compliance systems, and meet other controls that banks and money businesses already use. (regulations.gov) Treasury said the rule carries out the GENIUS Act, the stablecoin law President Donald Trump signed on July 18, 2025 as Public Law 119-27. That law created a federal framework for payment stablecoins and directed Treasury to write these anti-money-laundering and sanctions rules. (congress.gov) The shift is less about whether stablecoins can exist and more about how they must operate. The proposal keeps the legal structure Congress created for dollar-backed payment stablecoins while moving compliance staff, transaction monitoring, and screening systems to the center of the business. (federalregister.gov) Treasury’s filing says payment stablecoins could improve payment systems, but it also says illicit actors could use them because U.S. payment rails are large and reliable. The agencies framed the rule as a national-security measure as much as a financial one. (regulations.gov) The proposal also reaches beyond the issuer’s legal charter. American Banker reported that Treasury wants risk-based anti-money-laundering programs, secondary-market monitoring, and independent testing, which would push exchanges, wallet providers, and other middleware firms deeper into compliance work. (americanbanker.com) Congress built the stablecoin law to preserve use on public blockchains while still allowing lawful intervention. The GENIUS Act says foreign payment stablecoin issuers cannot be offered in the United States unless they have the technological capability to comply with lawful orders to seize, freeze, burn, or prevent transfers of specified tokens. (congress.gov) What happens next is procedural but important: Treasury will take comments until June 9, then decide whether to revise and finalize the rule. For stablecoin issuers, the message in the proposal is already concrete: compliance systems would no longer be optional infrastructure. (federalregister.gov)
