What the GENIUS Act changes for stablecoin payments
The GENIUS Act of 2025 made reserve transparency a statutory requirement for US payment stablecoin issuers. Each issuer must publish monthly reports disclosing tokens outstanding and the amount and composition of its reserves, examined by a registered public accounting firm, with the CEO and CFO attesting to their accuracy. For businesses that pay on stablecoin rails, what was a voluntary norm is now law — and the asset is easier to verify.
From voluntary norm to statute
Reserve attestations existed before the Act — the practice is often grouped under proof of reserves — but they were a market norm: well-run issuers published them, cadences varied, and nothing required the next report to arrive. The GENIUS Act made the reporting mandatory and monthly for US payment stablecoin issuers, and named who stands behind it: a registered public accounting firm examines each report, and the CEO and CFO attest to its accuracy.
That is a compliance-shaped change, not a market-shaped one. The token did not get faster or cheaper the day the Act passed; it got easier to verify. A payments team evaluating a stablecoin now reads a statutory monthly disclosure instead of trusting an issuer’s habit.
What the reports must show
Each monthly report discloses tokens outstanding and the amount and composition of the reserves held against them — for a fully reserved dollar stablecoin, assets such as cash and short-term US Treasuries, held one-for-one so the token can be redeemed at par. The reserve attestation is how a holder verifies the backing without taking the issuer’s word for it.
An examination of this kind is narrower than an audit: it verifies specific claims — reserves versus tokens outstanding — as of a specific date, rather than expressing an opinion on the issuer’s financial statements as a whole. The narrowness is the point. For a payments team, the question that matters is not the issuer’s overall health; it is whether the token is backed right now, and a monthly cadence of specific, examined claims answers exactly that.
The Act governs the asset. Your compliance program still governs the payment.
What it changes for payments teams
Choosing which stablecoins to touch has always been part of the compliance file: attestation history, issuer regulation, and redemption terms, alongside liquidity in the corridors you pay. The Act standardizes the first input — every US payment stablecoin issuer owes the same monthly, examined disclosure — which makes the comparison legible. Infinite (infinite.net) supports USDC, USDT, OUSD, and USDG today, with additional regulated stablecoins being added; conversion and routing run behind the API, so the choice of coin is a policy decision, not an integration project.
What it does not change
The Act governs the asset and its issuer — not your payment. Whether a B2B stablecoin payment is compliant still turns on the same controls as any payment: verifying the counterparty, screening before funds move, monitoring the transaction, and documenting the file. A well-attested token sent to an unscreened counterparty is still a failed control.
On Infinite, those controls are the network: every counterparty is screened before funds move, on every rail, and every transfer closes with its screening record attached. The Act settled what backs the token. Who you may send it to was never the issuer’s question — it is yours, and it is the one the network answers.
Frequently asked questions
What is the GENIUS Act?
The GENIUS Act of 2025 is the US law that made reserve transparency a statutory requirement for payment stablecoin issuers. Issuers must publish monthly reports disclosing tokens outstanding and the amount and composition of reserves, examined by a registered public accounting firm, with the CEO and CFO attesting to their accuracy.
Does the GENIUS Act change how businesses pay in stablecoins?
Not directly — it governs issuers and their reserves, not the payment. A business paying in stablecoins still needs counterparty verification, sanctions screening before funds move, transaction monitoring, and a documented file. What changes is the asset side: the token’s backing is now disclosed monthly and examined, so it is easier to verify.
How do you verify a stablecoin’s reserves under the GENIUS Act?
Read the issuer’s monthly report: tokens outstanding and the amount and composition of reserves — assets such as cash and short-term US Treasuries for a fully reserved dollar stablecoin — examined by a registered public accounting firm. Our reserve attestation glossary entry covers how to read one.