Katalin Tischhauser is Head of Investment Research at Sygnum Bank, a global digital asset banking group headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland. The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author.

With both the GENIUS Act and the CLARITY Act signed into law, the United States has established the clearest federal regulatory framework to date for dollar-backed stablecoins and digital asset markets.

This marks the first time federal law has explicitly recognized such digital assets as legitimate financial instruments, opening the door for banks, fintech companies, and even potential Fortune 500 firms to issue or integrate stablecoin operations.

But for chief financial officers, the real question is: what comes next?

Will stablecoins evolve into core infrastructure for corporate payments and treasury management? Or will they remain confined to cryptocurrency traders and niche fintech applications?

As always, regulation is a necessary but not sufficient condition. CFOs must assess the tangible business benefits of integrating stablecoins into their financial infrastructure.

The most compelling drivers are coming from retail giants such as Walmart and Amazon. If they issue their own stablecoins, the impact would go far beyond speeding up checkout processes—it signals a fundamental restructuring of how money moves in modern commerce:

  • Lower transaction costs:Retailers could bypass Visa and Mastercard, reducing credit card processing fees that typically run around 2%–3%. For low-margin businesses like Walmart, these savings would directly improve the bottom line.
  • Real-time settlement:Stablecoins offer instant finality, eliminating the "T+2 delay" common in traditional payment networks. This helps streamline supply chain payments, affiliate marketing payouts, and gig economy compensation processes.
  • Customer relationship ownership:Using proprietary stablecoins allows companies to control user data and loyalty infrastructure, turning payments into a channel for deeper customer insights and enhanced user retention.
  • Reserve yields:Under the GENIUS Act, holding stablecoin reserves in short-term U.S. Treasuries can generate steady, low-risk returns. This transforms payments from a cost center into a potential profit engine, similar to how companies like PayPal and Circle earn interest on idle funds.

These are not marginal gains. For large enterprises, they represent a strategic opportunity to convert financial plumbing into a competitive advantage. However, even with legislation in place, actual adoption still requires product-market fit, cross-functional coordination, and—critically—the willingness to reimagine how corporate funds are allocated.

Clear rules, growing institutional confidence

Many large banks and traditional financial institutions had already been exploring stablecoins for payments and settlement. But they had long operated in a regulatory gray area, hesitant to commit fully due to uncertainty. Now, with comprehensive federal legislation in place, these barriers are being removed.

Companies can finally move forward with confidence. Under the GENIUS Act, stablecoin pilot programs can be launched with regulatory certainty, supported by a clear federal framework. Interest generated on reserves (if held in short-term U.S. Treasuries) is now explicitly permitted, aligning stablecoin treasury operations with licensed fintech companies.

Thanks to the federal preemption provisions embedded in the Act, ERP and treasury system integrations no longer need to navigate fragmented state licensing requirements. Federal licensing standards apply uniformly to large issuers, eliminating ambiguity in regulatory and compliance obligations.

The GENIUS Act sets strict requirements, including 1:1 reserve backing with assets such as dollars or short-term U.S. Treasuries, and could potentially make stablecoin issuers major buyers of U.S. government debt. By holding large amounts of Treasuries as reserves, stablecoin issuers could evolve from fintech upstarts into key players in the U.S. economy.

The CLARITY Act, passed alongside the GENIUS Act, resolves the long-standing ambiguity over whether digital assets are securities or commodities. For corporate users, this clarity reduces the legal risk of integrating blockchain-based tools—from supply chain tokens to loyalty programs—into enterprise workflows.

Of course, the United States does not operate in a vacuum. Europe's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) framework has imposed different requirements, such as mandating that 60% of reserves be held with banks. Critics argue this could introduce new risks, as banks may be unable to meet redemption demands during stress events.

By contrast, the U.S. path emphasizes short-term U.S. Treasuries and cash equivalents. Although MiCA is generally more restrictive than the GENIUS Act, historical experience suggests that Treasury-backed stablecoins are more resilient. The GENIUS Act also explicitly permits bank settlement via stablecoins, which could integrate them more directly into the national payment infrastructure.

A trillion-dollar market?

Although some analysts predict stablecoin circulation could reach $2 trillion by 2028, Sygnum Bank's recent Crypto Market Outlook emphasizes that growth in retail stablecoin usage will require incentive-driven adoption. Stablecoin usage in settlement may be largely confined to private or permissioned networks and could generate little or no fees for public blockchain protocols.

Stablecoins already play a foundational role in crypto markets and decentralized finance, and are gradually gaining adoption in cross-border remittances and emerging markets with weak local currencies or rapid inflation. But their next chapter—as programmable dollars in mainstream financial workflows—will require measurable incentives, institutional-grade infrastructure, and confidence from corporate users.

With the GENIUS and CLARITY Acts now in effect, the regulatory foundation is no longer theoretical. Financial leaders now face a clear choice: continue to wait on the sidelines, or proactively evaluate stablecoins and blockchain rails as core components of their treasury systems.