Treasury just put a deadline on offshore stablecoins’ access to US customers

By July 18, 2028, a stablecoin could still move freely across blockchains and yet disappear from the buy menu on an American exchange. Under the Treasury Department’s proposed GENIUS Act rules, a digital asset service provider wouldn't be able to offer or sell a payment stablecoin to someone in the United States from that date unless its issuer fits one of the law’s permitted categories.The proposal doesn’t ban an offshore token from circulating abroad or moving between private wallets; it just controls how regulated businesses distribute that token inside the US. For Tether’s USDT, the biggest issue is therefore whether an American exchange can keep offering it to customers, even though the token itself would continue to exist and function on-chain.That distinction is what turns GENIUS from an abstract licensing law into something users can actually see and interact with. Treasury expects the broader regime to take effect on Jan. 18, 2027, giving issuers and the platforms carrying their tokens 18 more months to prepare for the larger distribution restriction in 2028.The exchange is now the borderThe two dates divide implementation into stages. Starting Jan. 18, 2027, companies won...