The Frontier

Chris Giancarlo argues that financial privacy is a democratic value and says U.S. surveillance has expanded through the Bank Secrecy Act and post-9/11 policies. He criticizes the GENIUS Act for applying the Bank Secrecy Act to stablecoins and cites government requests for Coinbase customer data and politically motivated debanking.

Odysseus says large organizations will struggle to respond because bureaucracy slows adoption, while crypto companies have spent years defending valuable, public targets. Hari says Coinbase is better prepared than many traditional institutions, though both need continued investment.

The OCC finalized its Genius Act rules without settling the fight over stablecoin rewards, leaving existing programs in place for case-by-case review. Issuers cannot pay interest directly or pass through Treasury-bill yield, but the rules did not impose the crackdown banks sought, leaving room for exchanges such as Coinbase to continue rewards.