Stablecoins and Digital Asset Reporting for Institutions

Current as of November 8, 2026. Quotations come from the statutes, regulations, Federal Register documents, IRS instructions, EU legislation and OECD standard listed at the end; rule status was checked against the Federal Register on that date. The comparisons, the systems section and the questions are ours, and are labeled. It is not legal or tax advice.

The EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) brought e-money tokens and asset-referenced tokens under authorization from June 30, 2024, and in July 2025 the United States enacted the GENIUS Act, which defines a payment stablecoin and says who may issue one. Meanwhile tax authorities began requiring firms that hold and trade digital assets for customers to report their customers' transactions.

Both land in the same systems: what each token is, who each customer is for tax purposes, what each holding cost, and whether the ledger agrees with the chain.

What is a payment stablecoin under the GENIUS Act?

Section 2 of the GENIUS Act (Public Law 119-27, 12 U.S.C. 5901) defines it as a digital asset "that is, or is designed to be, used as a means of payment or settlement", whose issuer "is obligated to convert, redeem, or repurchase for a fixed amount of monetary value, not including a digital asset denominated in a fixed amount of monetary value" and represents that it "will maintain, or create the reasonable expectation that it will maintain, a stable value relative to the value of a fixed amount of monetary value".

A digital asset is "any digital representation of value that is recorded on a cryptographically secured distributed ledger." Three things are carved out: a national currency; a deposit, "including a deposit recorded using distributed ledger technology"; and a security. A token whose issuer has no obligation to redeem may be called a stablecoin and still fall outside it (interpretation).

Who may issue a payment stablecoin in the United States?

From the Act's effective date, only a permitted payment stablecoin issuer may issue one: "It shall be unlawful for any person other than a permitted payment stablecoin issuer to issue a payment stablecoin in the United States." A permitted issuer is a person formed in the United States that is one of three things:

• A subsidiary of an insured depository institution approved under section 5, supervised by the parent's federal regulator: the OCC, the FDIC or the Federal Reserve, or the NCUA for credit unions.
• A Federal qualified payment stablecoin issuer: a nonbank entity, an uninsured national bank or a Federal branch, each approved by the OCC.
• A State qualified payment stablecoin issuer, approved by a state regulator under a regime certified as substantially similar to the federal one.

Distribution has its own rule. Section 3(b) bars a digital asset service provider from offering or selling a payment stablecoin to a person in the United States unless a permitted issuer issued it, subject to Treasury safe harbors and the foreign-issuer provisions of section 18 (section 3(b)). Treasury's proposal (91 FR 53368) dates the bar "beginning on July 18, 2028 (i.e., the date that is three years after the date of enactment of the GENIUS Act)".

What must an issuer hold, publish and redeem?

• Reserves. An issuer must "maintain identifiable reserves backing the outstanding payment stablecoins" at least one for one, from a closed list: cash and Federal Reserve balances, demand deposits at insured institutions, short-dated Treasuries, certain overnight repurchase agreements, government money market funds holding those assets, other liquid federal assets the regulator approves, and tokenized forms of some of these. Reserves may not be pledged or reused except for listed purposes.
• Redemption. A public redemption policy with "clear and conspicuous procedures for timely redemption", and all purchase and redemption fees disclosed in plain language.
• Disclosure. Monthly publication of reserve composition and coins outstanding, examined each month by a registered public accounting firm and certified by the chief executive and chief financial officers.
• No yield. The issuer may not pay a holder any "form of interest or yield (whether in cash, tokens, or other consideration) solely in connection with the holding, use, or retention" of the coin.

Capital, liquidity and risk standards are left to rules; an issuer "shall be treated as a financial institution for purposes of the Bank Secrecy Act".

When does the GENIUS Act take effect, and where are the rules?

The OCC's final rule says: "The GENIUS Act will be effective on January 18, 2027". Under section 20 of the Act, it takes effect on the earlier of eighteen months after enactment or 120 days after the primary Federal payment stablecoin regulators issue any final regulations implementing it. Section 13 required rules within a year of enactment, by July 18, 2026. As of November 8, 2026 the Federal Register shows:

Anti-money laundering and sanctions rules for issuers are separate proposals, from FinCEN and OFAC (91 FR 18582), the FDIC (91 FR 34171) and the OCC (91 FR 37840), with a joint FinCEN and agency customer identification proposal (91 FR 37234). The OCC itself "anticipates that these implementing regulations will be updated, as necessary, in the years following the effective date of the GENIUS Act".

How does the EU's MiCA treat stablecoins?

MiCA uses two defined types. An e-money token is "a type of crypto-asset that purports to maintain a stable value by referencing the value of one official currency". An asset-referenced token is "a type of crypto-asset that is not an electronic money token and that purports to maintain a stable value by referencing another value or right or a combination thereof, including one or more official currencies". The titles governing both applied from June 30, 2024.

• Public offers and admission to trading. E-money tokens: the issuer, a credit institution or electronic money institution with a published white paper, or others with its written consent (Article 48). Asset-referenced tokens: the same pattern, with an issuer authorized in its home Member State or a credit institution meeting Article 17 (Article 16).
• Redemption. E-money tokens are redeemed "at any time and at par value", and redemption "shall not be subject to a fee", without prejudice to Article 46 (Article 49). Asset-referenced token holders have a right of redemption "at all times" (Article 39), backed by a segregated reserve of assets (Article 36).
• Interest. Issuers "shall not grant interest in relation to e-money tokens", nor may crypto-asset service providers (Article 50).

Authorization under MiCA is not authorization under the GENIUS Act, or the reverse (interpretation).

What digital asset reporting applies to US brokers?

Brokers report customers' digital asset sales on Form 1099-DA under TD 10000, final regulations of July 9, 2024, requiring reports of "gross proceeds and adjusted basis on dispositions of digital assets effected for customers in certain sale or exchange transactions." It phases in. For 2025, "Brokers are not required to report basis information with respect to sales effected in 2025." After that, "For sales a broker has effected for customers after 2025 of digital assets that are covered securities, the broker is required to report basis information."

Covered status is a custody test: "A digital asset is a covered security only if it was acquired in an account for which the broker provided custodial services and was held in that account until the broker effects the disposition of the digital asset." Assets acquired before 2026, or transferred in, are noncovered.

Under the instructions, "A broker includes any person who, in the ordinary course of a trade or business, stands ready to effect sales of digital assets to be made by others", and also issuers that regularly redeem their own digital assets and digital asset middlemen such as kiosk operators and payment processors. "Generally, only a U.S. digital asset broker is required to report on Form 1099-DA." A qualifying stablecoin (a tax definition, separate from the GENIUS Act's) has optional reporting methods that drop basis.

Non-custodial platforms were left out: "the proposed new digital asset middleman rules that apply to non-custodial industry participants are not being finalized with these final regulations." TD 10021, published December 30, 2024, would have reached certain DeFi participants; Public Law 119-5, approved April 10, 2025, says it "shall have no force or effect", and it was removed from the Code of Federal Regulations on July 11, 2025. Under 5 U.S.C. 801(b)(2), a rule "may not be reissued in substantially the same form" unless a later law specifically authorizes it; a materially different DeFi rule is not barred by that section (interpretation).

What are the OECD's CARF and the EU's DAC8?

The international version of the same idea. The OECD says its Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF), published June 2023, "provides for the automatic exchange of tax relevant-information on Crypto-Assets"; it binds firms once a jurisdiction adopts it (interpretation). A Reporting Crypto-Asset Service Provider is a business that "provides a service effectuating Exchange Transactions for or on behalf of customers", and it "must report the following information with respect to its Crypto-Asset Users that are Reportable Users or that have Controlling Persons that are Reportable Persons": identity, residence and tax numbers, then aggregate acquisitions, disposals and transfers per type of crypto-asset.

One definition decides where a stablecoin lands. CARF excludes Specified Electronic Money Products, which the Common Reporting Standard covers, and its Commentary says: "Accordingly, a stablecoin that qualifies as a Specified Electronic Money Product is treated as Fiat Currency."

DAC8, Council Directive (EU) 2023/2226, puts CARF-based reporting into EU law for crypto-asset service providers authorized under MiCA and for crypto-asset operators that are not, with a parallel exclusion for Electronic Money. Its recitals count e-money tokens as crypto-assets while its annex excludes Electronic Money defined by function, so how a given e-money token is reported is a question for counsel (interpretation). Member States "shall apply those provisions from 1 January 2026", with later dates for a few provisions. For the US, the TD 10000 preamble expects that "once the United States implements the CARF", brokers will report non-US customers under separate regulations; none had been published in the Federal Register as of November 8, 2026.

How do the regimes compare?

What does this mean for wallet, customer and cost-basis systems?

What the rules ask a platform to know (interpretation):

• One token, several classifications (GENIUS, MiCA, Form 1099-DA, CARF and DAC8). Store each as a dated attribute with its evidence, not one stablecoin flag.
• Customer tax data. US reporting runs on taxpayer identification numbers; CARF and DAC8 on self-certified tax residence, including entities' controlling persons. Keep both current.
• Wallet data. CARF reports transfers, including to wallets not tied to a regulated provider, so record each destination and whether it is hosted.
• Cost basis. Each lot needs where and when it was acquired, and whether it was transferred in.
• Reconciliation. An issuer's token ledger and reserve accounts must agree on one monthly cut-off; a custodian's ledger must agree with the chain.

For more on the data, see Comparing Custodial vs. Non-Custodial Wallet Features for Institutions and 10 Data Points Your Crypto AML/KYT Tool Needs, and the glossary entries for a stablecoin and digital asset tax reporting.

Questions to ask before you build

• Which tokens we hold or issue meet the payment stablecoin definition, and who signed off on that reading?
• Which of our entities are Form 1099-DA brokers, and which custodied assets are covered?
• For any reported sale, can we produce the lot, its cost and date, and the customer's tax status then?
• Does custody reconcile to the chain daily?

How we sourced this article: every quotation comes from the primary documents below, of which we keep saved copies. Proposals may have been finalized since November 8, 2026. Everything marked (interpretation), and the questions, are our own. To question a point, use our contact page.

Sources

1. Public Law 119-27, GENIUS Act, July 18, 2025 (govinfo)
2. OCC, final rule, 91 FR 67000
3. FDIC, proposed subsidiary approvals, 90 FR 59409
4. FDIC, proposed standards, 91 FR 18534
5. Federal Reserve Board, proposed rule, 91 FR 61580
6. Federal Reserve Board, proposed application procedures, 91 FR 61346
7. NCUA, proposed licensing rule, 91 FR 6531
8. NCUA, supplemental proposal, 91 FR 28956
9. Treasury, proposed state-regime principles, 91 FR 16844
10. Treasury, proposed issuance, offer and sale rule, 91 FR 53368
11. Treasury, Certification Review Committee interim final rule, 91 FR 61688
12. FinCEN and OFAC, proposed AML and sanctions rule, 91 FR 18582
13. FDIC, proposed BSA and sanctions standards, 91 FR 34171
14. OCC, proposed AML and sanctions rule, 91 FR 37840
15. FinCEN and agencies, proposed issuer CIP rule, 91 FR 37234
16. Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 on markets in crypto-assets (MiCA), EUR-Lex
17. Treasury and IRS, TD 10000, 89 FR 56480
18. Public Law 119-5 (H.J. Res. 25), April 10, 2025 (govinfo)
19. Treasury and IRS, removal of TD 10021, 90 FR 30825
20. 5 U.S.C. 801, Congressional review (govinfo)
21. IRS, Instructions for Form 1099-DA (2026)
22. IRS, Instructions for Form 1099-DA (2025)
23. OECD, Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework and 2023 update to the CRS
24. Council Directive (EU) 2023/2226 (DAC8), EUR-Lex