Treasury allows states to file incomplete stablecoin applications before deadline

The U.S. Treasury Department has finalized procedural rules letting states lock in a path toward approving their own stablecoin oversight regimes even before their enabling legislation is complete. The move affects any bank, fintech or state regulator weighing whether to pursue a state or federal charter once the GENIUS Act’s certification regime becomes operational.

• The Stablecoin Certification Review Committee will accept conditional or incomplete state filings to meet the initial deadline
• Only state-qualified issuers with up to $10 billion in consolidated outstanding payment stablecoins can seek state regulation
• Treasury says it will not accept any certifications until Paperwork Reduction Act approval clears, with a notice to follow

• $10B cap on outstanding stablecoin issuance to qualify for state regulation
• Jan 18, 2028 deadline Treasury set for states to file initial certifications
• 30-day window the Committee has to approve or deny a complete filing
• Nov 30 deadline for public comments on the new interim procedures

Treasury published the interim final rule in the Federal Register on Wednesday (September 30), according to reporting by CryptoSlate. It sets the forms and review procedures the Stablecoin Certification Review Committee will use to evaluate state stablecoin regimes under the GENIUS Act.

The Committee says a conditional or incomplete certification can satisfy the statute’s initial filing timeframe even when a state still has legislative or regulatory work pending. That gives state regulators room to submit something on time, then continue building out their regimes before the Committee begins a substantive review.

Conditional filings satisfy the deadline but do not start the 30-day clock

A state’s conditional filing can be amended at any point and does not trigger the Committee’s 30-day approval-or-denial window. That clock only begins once a state submits a complete certification: an unconditional attestation signed by an authorized representative, a detailed explanation of how its regime meets Treasury’s similarity principles, supporting legal materials, and any additional information the Committee requires.

The distinction buys states time to finish their work after meeting the initial deadline. It does not automatically approve a state’s regime or grant a license to any individual stablecoin issuer.

Under the GENIUS Act, the Committee is chaired by the Treasury Secretary, with the Federal Reserve’s Vice Chair for Supervision and the FDIC chair as the other members, acting unanimously on state regime approvals. That three-member structure, not the procedural rule itself, decides whether a state’s regime ultimately clears review.

A $10 billion ceiling separates state-regulated issuers from federal ones

The flexibility applies to state-qualified payment stablecoin issuers that keep no more than $10 billion in consolidated outstanding payment stablecoin issuance. Those issuers may opt into state regulation only if their state regulator certifies the regime meets Treasury’s substantial-similarity criteria and the Committee unanimously finds it meets or exceeds the standards in section 4(a) of the GENIUS Act.

What counts as substantially similar is still unsettled. Treasury’s separate proposed rule on substantial-similarity principles addresses that comparison, and the September 30 procedural rule explicitly does not finalize those principles. CryptoSlate’s earlier coverage of the July filing deadline had already flagged the difficulty of judging state equivalence while federal, Treasury and OCC rules remained unfinished; that gap persists even with forms and timelines now in place.

Certifications wait on Paperwork Reduction Act clearance ahead of the Nov. 30 comment deadline

The rule took effect September 30, but Treasury says it will not accept any certifications until the underlying information collection clears Paperwork Reduction Act approval. Treasury will post a separate notice announcing when acceptance actually begins.

The rule uses January 18, 2028 as the deadline for initial certifications, built on an expected January 18, 2027 effective date for the GENIUS Act. The statutory filing deadline is one year after the Act takes effect, but the Act can trigger earlier under Section 20, which sets the earlier of 18 months after enactment or 120 days after federal payment stablecoin regulators finalize their implementing regulations.

Public comments on the interim procedures are due November 30.

The BlockWest read. Procedural flexibility does not remove the $10 billion ceiling that separates state-regulated issuers from federal ones. Any issuer planning to scale past that threshold still needs a federal charter path, so treasurers and bank partners weighing state licenses should treat this filing window as a bridge, not a destination, while the substantial-similarity standard remains unresolved.

The next concrete marker is November 30, when the comment period on the interim procedures closes, followed by Treasury’s still-undated notice on when it will start accepting certifications and the unresolved question of when the substantial-similarity principles themselves get finalized.

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