Stablecoins, the US GENIUS Act and the European Regulation (MiCAR)

Expanding Frontiers: An Alternative Investments & Machine Learning Podcast

This episode discussed an academic essay that compares two major legislative frameworks—the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCAR) and the U.S. Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act (GENIUS Act)—designed to regulate the growing $250 billion stablecoin market. The authors first identify four critical private law shortcomings in centralized stablecoins, exemplified by issuers Circle and Tether: asymmetrical terms of service, ambiguous customer rights, tenuous redemption systems, and a perilous position for holders in bankruptcy. While market leaders have not adopted straightforward private ordering solutions to remedy these issues, the essay analyzes how both MiCAR and the GENIUS Act attempt to address these deficiencies, finding that MiCAR emphasizes comprehensive conduct obligations and strict liability, whereas the GENIUS Act focuses on operational requirements and unprecedented bankruptcy protections. Ultimately, the success of these laws hinges on their ability to fix these core private law problems, with the GENIUS Act notably granting stablecoin holders super-priority claims in insolvency, which may be overly aggressive.

References

Odinet, Christopher K. and Tosato, Andrea, Regulating Centralized Stablecoins: Comparing MiCAR and the GENIUS Act (August 07, 2025). Notre Dame Law Review Reflection, 2026, Forthcoming, Texas A&M University School of Law Legal Studies Research Paper No. 25-38, SMU Dedman School of Law Legal Studies Research Paper No. 701, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=5383158 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5383158

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