GENIUS and CLARITY Acts: what firms must know now
Two sweeping pieces of US legislation are forcing financial firms to fundamentally rethink how they approach digital asset compliance.
➤ New US legislation, the GENIUS Act and CLARITY Act, along with a joint SEC/CFTC release, are establishing clear regulatory frameworks for digital assets, moving them out of ambiguity. ➤ The GENIUS Act provides a framework for payment stablecoins, requiring 1:1 reserves and specific issuer qualifications, while the CLARITY Act defines the boundary between securities and commodities, assigning oversight to the SEC and CFTC respectively. ➤ These developments necessitate a fundamental rethinking of compliance for financial firms, impacting digital asset classification, transaction monitoring, employee trading, and insider risk management.