President Donald Trump marked the one-year anniversary of the Genius Act on Wednesday, telling a room of Wall Street executives and crypto industry leaders that the stablecoin law he named after himself has driven trillions of dollars in new investment into the United States. Trump made the remarks during an event with technology and finance leaders held ahead of the first meeting of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Innovation Advisory Committee in Washington.
“One year ago this summer, I signed landmark legislation known as the Genius Act. I named it after myself. I didn’t want to use my name, so I just called it the Genius Act, paving the way for widespread adoption of dollar-backed stable coins,” Trump said. “And that’s worked out very well. Every single American benefits enormously from our country’s status as the financial center of the world, and we want to keep it that way.”
The president said the United States has pulled ahead of other nations in the 16 months since the law took effect. “We’re leading by leaps and bounds. We’ve gained so much in the last 16 months like nobody can believe, actually,” Trump said. “And not only that, but we have more money being invested in the United States than any country at any time in history. Money is coming in by the trillions.”
The Event
Wednesday’s remarks came at a gathering the White House billed as bringing together some of the nation’s leading figures in finance, crypto and technology ahead of the CFTC advisory committee’s inaugural session. Trump was joined by CFTC Chairman Mike Selig, SEC Chairman Paul Atkins, and Patrick Witt, executive director of the President’s Council of Advisers on Digital Assets. Also present were Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, Intercontinental Exchange CEO Jeffrey Sprecher, Nasdaq CEO Adena Friedman, Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev, Kraken CEO Arjun Sethi, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, Chainlink Labs co-founder Sergey Nazarov, and Gemini co-founders Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, among other industry figures.
Trump used part of his remarks to contrast his administration’s approach to digital assets with that of his predecessor. He said the Biden administration pursued “crippling regulations, brutal restrictions” and “political weaponization” against the crypto industry, and said his administration fired then-SEC Chair Gary Gensler and ended what regulators had called “Operation Choke Point 2.0” on his first day in office. He also cited a March 2025 executive order establishing a U.S. Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and a U.S. Digital Asset Stockpile, along with an order banning the creation of a central bank digital currency.
The Genius Act, One Year Later
Trump signed the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act, known as the Genius Act, into law on July 18, 2025. The law created the first federal regulatory framework for dollar-backed stablecoins, requiring issuers to hold reserves fully backed by cash or short-term Treasuries, submit to monthly public disclosures, and comply with the Bank Secrecy Act’s anti-money laundering requirements. A White House fact sheet released at the time said the law was designed to make “America the undisputed leader in digital assets” and to strengthen the dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency by driving demand for U.S. Treasuries.
Trump had pushed for the bill’s passage throughout the spring of 2025, posting at the time that it would “make America the UNDISPUTED Leader in Digital Assets” and calling on the House to pass a “clean” version “with NO DELAYS, NO ADD ONS.” The Senate passed the bill in June 2025 and the House followed in July, sending it to Trump’s desk for signature.
The stablecoin market has grown substantially since the law took effect. Total stablecoin market capitalization stood at roughly $205 billion in January 2025 and had grown to about $306 billion by the end of that year, a 49% increase that industry analysts and the Federal Reserve have both tied in part to the regulatory clarity the law provided. By mid-2026, market capitalization was holding near $310 billion to $320 billion, with Tether’s USDT and Circle’s USDC together accounting for more than 80% of the sector.
Core implementation rules for the law, however, remain unfinished. The Genius Act’s provisions take full effect no later than January 18, 2027, or 120 days after regulators finalize implementing rules, whichever comes first, and as of mid-July 2026, several of those rules were still in proposal form.
Trump Presses Congress on the Clarity Act
Trump also renewed his call for Congress to pass a companion measure, the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, which would establish a broader framework dividing regulatory jurisdiction over digital assets between the SEC and the CFTC. “So now we need Congress to take the next step by passing the Clarity Act, a fair version of the Clarity Act,” Trump said. “This landmark structured legislation… will keep us ahead of China, keep us ahead of everyone else, will open the door to the next wave of innovations and innovators.”
The bill has had a slower path than the Genius Act. The House passed its version in July 2025 by a vote of 294 to 134, and the Senate Banking Committee advanced its own version in May 2026. But the bill stalled in the full Senate over the summer amid disputes between the crypto industry and banking groups over stablecoin yield rules and ethics provisions, including a proposal to give state attorneys general enforcement authority. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said in early August that the bill would not get a floor vote before the chamber’s summer recess; the Senate instead advanced a procedural cloture motion on August 8, setting up a possible vote when lawmakers return in mid-September.
Markets and the Economy
Trump pointed to stock market performance as further evidence of the country’s financial standing, saying the market has hit an all-time high on 80 separate days since he returned to office and that 401(k) balances have reached record levels for roughly 40% of his time in the presidency. He also renewed his frequent criticism of the Federal Reserve over interest rates, arguing that rates should fall alongside strong economic performance rather than rise on inflation concerns. “They keep thinking that we’ll drive them up to stop inflation because success in growth does not cause inflation,” Trump said. “Other things cause inflation.”
National Debt and Gas Prices
The president’s remarks on trillions in new investment came the same week the federal government’s own ledger crossed a new threshold. Total U.S. government debt reached $40.05 trillion as of Tuesday, according to the Treasury Department, after the government posted a $432.3 billion deficit in July — the highest monthly shortfall in more than five years. The debt has more than doubled over the past decade, when it stood at $19.4 trillion.
Gasoline prices have also climbed through the summer. The national average for a gallon of regular gasoline stood at $4.07 as of August 18, according to AAA, up roughly 30% from a year earlier and among the highest readings on record for this time of year. Diesel prices have followed a similar trend, with the national average topping $5.40 a gallon in early August for the first time. Analysts have pointed to constrained global fuel supplies tied to the ongoing conflict involving Iran and disruptions along the Strait of Hormuz, along with the Russia-Ukraine war, as contributing factors.
Broader Context
Wednesday’s event took place against the backdrop of a broader digital-asset agenda Trump has pursued since returning to office in January 2025, including the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, the Digital Asset Stockpile, and the CFTC’s approval in May of the first Bitcoin perpetual futures contract on a registered U.S. exchange. Trump noted that Selig is also working to bring the decentralized exchange Hyperliquid into the U.S. under a “fully compliant and legal fashion.” He closed his remarks by turning the floor over to Selig, Atkins, Armstrong, Sprecher and Tenev for further comment on the administration’s digital-asset agenda.