Stablecoin Proliferation is a Treasury Policy Problem

Editorial Calendar World-Region-Country Stablecoin Proliferation is a Treasury Policy Problem Most of the early commentary has treated the proposal as a compliance question for issuers. The contributed piece below argues that it is also a treasury question for any company that accepts stablecoins from customers: what a counterparty is allowed to send, and what the finance team is prepared to hold, are two decisions that most businesses have not yet separated. Will Harborneis founder and chief executive ofRhino.fi, a cross-chain liquidity and settlement infrastructure company that moves stablecoin payments across multiple blockchain networks.

The article that follows sets out his opinion. The US Treasury’s latest notice of proposed rulemaking under the GENIUS Act sets out how stablecoin issuers and platforms can qualify to operate in the US market. Licensing requirements would start in January 2027, with the broader restrictions on stablecoins sold to US persons from mid-2028.

The proposal is open to public comment, but finance teams already have to think more deliberately about issuer eligibility and what they are prepared to hold. The era of ‘just send USDC’ was already ending, regardless. Banks and fintechs are launching their own stablecoins.

Consortium models are adding issuers, while euro-denominated stablecoins have moved past their cold start, with market capitalisation up 128 per cent year over year. As stablecoins become part of mainstream fintech infrastructure, payment teams need room to accept what customers already use, while treasury still has to control what reaches the balance sheet. Without a defined boundary, ordinary customer requests can keep landing on the CFO’s desk.

In the client base I work with, the median business settles into a single asset, and more than 90 per cent of them choose USDC or USDT, even when counterparties can pay in 10 supported assets, with more being added. Treasury policy