On June 18, five leading U.S. Financial Regulators proposed a new rule that would require blockchain-based stablecoin issuers to implement a Customer Identification Program (CIP), which is a similar program that is required for the traditional banking sector.
The joint proposed rule was introduced by FinCEN, the Federal Reserve Board, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), and the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA).
What the Proposed Rule Requires From Stablecoin Issuers
This new proposed rule is expected to provide better anti-money laundering protection as part of the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation (GENIUS) for U.S. stablecoins, which was signed into law by U.S. President Donald Trump in 2025.
“The GENIUS Act directs that permitted payment stablecoin issuers be treated as financial institutions under the Bank Secrecy Act and be required to maintain effective customer identification programs. The proposal seeks to provide an appropriately tailored regime that mitigates potential illicit finance risks while protecting the U.S. financial system and national security interests,” stated in the official press release.
The new proposed rule would make it mandatory for stablecoin issuers to create risk-based procedures in order to verify the identity of each customer, maintain records of all information collected, screen customers against government lists of known or suspected terrorists, and also provide notice to customers while collecting information about their identity.
This proposed rule would also create a guideline to deny stablecoin payment service in case of failure of customer identity verification.
The new proposed rule is created to apply directly between stablecoin issuers and consumers. Apart from this, issuers would be allowed to rely on another regulated financial entity’s performance of CIP procedures under valid circumstances.
The proposal will be open for public comments for the next 60 days.
In another rulemaking, FinCEN also proposed a rule to implement an anti-money laundering rule for permitted payment stablecoin issuers as it is required under the GENIUS Act.
“The proposed rule would provide that the appropriate Federal functional regulator, with the concurrence of the Secretary of the Treasury, may by order or regulation exempt any PPSI or any type of account from the CIP requirements. It also would provide that the Secretary, with the concurrence of the Federal functional regulator, may exempt any PPSI or any type of account from the CIP requirements,” stated in the proposal.
GENIUS Act Implementation for Stablecoin Issuers
In 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump signed the GENIUS Act in order to turn the first clear federal law for USD-pegged stablecoins like RLUSD in the U.S. This law is making it mandatory for stablecoin issuers to maintain full reserves and follow anti-money laundering and sanction rules.
The new CIP proposal was developed based on the previous regulatory guideline from FinCEN and the Office of Foreign Assets Control in April 2026, which was focused on anti-money laundering and sanctions compliance.
The digital asset sector is still struggling to gain regulatory clarity despite the formation of the GENIUS Act. There is another major regulatory framework for stablecoin that is in the development phase. However, there is a tussle between the crypto sector and the banking sector over stablecoin yield. This has delayed the process of its approval, and there is still visible disagreement between these two sectors.
Banking groups have been created to restrict such yields in order to prevent deposit flight from traditional banks. On the other hand, the crypto sector is stating that these restrictions on stablecoin yield could affect blockchain-based innovations.
JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said that “it allows them to effectively pay interest on deposits, stablecoins, or something like that, without the protection that they should have. The banks will not accept it that way. … I’m not worried about stablecoins, but if it happened, I’m telling you I will have nothing to do with it, and it will eventually blow up.”
