The Blockchain Association has issued a statement supporting the proposed rules of the GENIUS Act, advocating that customer identity verification obligations be limited to direct transactions in the primary market.

The US crypto industry’s leading unified advocacy group, the Blockchain Association, announced today it has submitted a comment letter backing the stablecoin issuer rules jointly proposed by the US Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), and National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) under the GENIUS Act. The Blockchain Association’s core position is clear: it supports limiting Customer Identification Program (CIP) obligations to direct transactions between primary market issuers and customers, rather than extending identity verification duties to downstream secondary market activities. This means routine peer-to-peer transactions would not fall under stablecoin issuers’ CIP compliance scope, balancing anti-money laundering (AML) objectives while avoiding undue burdens on decentralized trading environments. The group also called for clearer definitions of key terms including “account”, “customer”, and “digital asset service providers”, recommending excluding one-time redemptions and activities unrelated to stablecoins. It further demanded avoiding redundant compliance requirements and clarifying that stablecoin issuers have flexibility in how they verify customer information. On effective timing, the Blockchain Association suggests aligning the effective date of the proposed CIP rules with separate AML rules to be implemented under the GENIUS Act.