The Genius Act: A Game Changer for the Stablecoin Industry

Stablecoins are at the top of the list of eager institutions looking to get into the digital asset space.

Now companies and big banks may be awaiting the passage of the Genius Act for regulatory clarity, and this could open up the stablecoin industry to trillions of dollars.

While many DC lawmakers want to get the Genius Act at Trump's desk by the end of the week, but the bill hit an unexpected.

Yesterday, some House Republicans are afraid the Genius Act provides a backdoor path for the Fed to create a CBDC.

But Trump now saying Republicans have the votes to advance crypto legislation.

Well joining me to break this down is Heath Tarbert, president of Circle.

Heath, good morning.

Thank you so much for joining me.

So first and foremost, what does the Genius Act mean for the stablecoin industry?

Thank you for having me, Remy.

The Stablecoin Act in the form of the Genius Act is absolutely critical.

The way that I see it is that it is the most important upgrade to our financial plumbing since the 1970s.

It essentially allows us to take fiat currency, and when we're talking about it, we're focused on the US dollar and essentially make the dollar available over public blockchains over the internet.

Essentially futureproofing the dollar, making it a 21st century version.

And so for the industry itself, it's obviously critically important because in many ways it enshrines the way that Circle has done business for years.

Highly regulated 1 to 1 backing for stablecoins with the US dollar, transparency, attestations, audited financial statements, all those things that consumers and businesses need to be able to depend on a stablecoin like USDC.

We are now seeing enshrined in federal law, so there's an even playing field.

It'll allow now millions of people who haven't been using digital dollars in the form of stablecoins to now use them.

And Heath Circle is a global leader when it comes to stablecoins and big banks and even big business have been eyeing tokens when Circle went public here at the New York Stock Exchange, it got quite the reception.

So will the genius A passage increased competition to the true bloods of the industry?

Well, we welcome competition provided it's on a fair and even playing field, and that's exactly what the Genius of Act does.

It requires anyone issuing a stablecoin that's going to be used or traded in the United States to have the same basic standards either in the United States or if you're from a foreign jurisdiction, that jurisdiction has to be recognized as being comparable to the Genius Act.

So our view is that this is great because it will actually As you say, increase the amount of stablecoins in circulation, and people will start using them more.

So Circle is confident that given we're a digitally asset native company that we will continue to lead as the world's largest regulated stablecoin issuer.

Yeah, and speaking of which, how is Circle looking to expand its stable coin business globally?

Yeah, so, so we are licensed in nearly all of the largest relevant jurisdictions, and that's been something that's important to circle from day one that we believe differentiates ourselves from our competitors trust, compliance, and transparency.

That's a big part of the reason why we went public, because we wanted to hold ourselves to the highest standards of governance and disclosure.

And so we're regulated in various jurisdictions.

We also follow all the AMLCTF rules that ensure that the money doesn't get into the wrong hands.

And so we're doing that all around the world and in.

In parallel to sort of our regulatory efforts to get the proper licensing, we're also building the infrastructure that's going to power the internet financial system of tomorrow.

So we're very much an internet platform company, so we're building out the various layers that enable stablecoins like USDC to be the most liquid, secure, safe, and highly used in the world.

That is the goal.

So we're building infrastructure out to make that possible so people can use USDC in any jurisdiction.

It's used in over 190 companies and this year alone over $6 trillion in transactions using in USDC.

At the same time, we're also building really important applications for USDC like our recently announced Circle payment network.

So all of those things come together as an internet platform company to create both the infrastructure stack as well as critical applications that allow the use of USDC to be as seamless as sending a text or an email but safe and secure.

OK, Heath, well, we will have to leave it there for today, but thank you for joining us and thank you so much for sharing your insights as well as your perspective.

My pleasure.

Thank you so much.