Wyoming Moves to Ensure State Stablecoin Follows GENIUS Act

Wyoming is furthering its collaboration with the Chainlink network to strengthen the states stablecoin efforts.

The Wyoming Stable Token Commission, issuer of the first U.S.-state-issued stable token, announced Wednesday (Sept. 2) that it has “deepened its adoption of Chainlink to bring a new standard for reserve transparency by adopting Chainlink’ Proof of Reserve.”

This builds on the commission’s recent migration to Chainlink’s Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP) as its exclusive cross-chain infrastructure, “a critical upgrade to ensure secure-by-default infrastructure for Frontier Stable Token (FRNT),” the announcement said.

According to the commission, the move meets and exceeds the requirements established by the GENIUS Act.

Adopted last year, the act “establishes an important federal baseline for stablecoin transparency” by mandating monthly disclosure of “reserve composition and outstanding supply supported by independent examination of month-end reporting,” the commission said.

But monthly reporting provides just a “point-in-time” view, while the time between reports in digital asset markets create a gap information about what could have changed since the last verification, the announcement said.

“The Commission already surpasses the GENIUS requirements by posting daily attestations on its website,” the announcement added. “By adopting Chainlink Proof of Reserve, Wyoming further exceeds its own best-in-class baseline by combining independent examination with automated onchain verification.”

Wyoming became the first state in the U.S. to launch its own stablecoin earlier this year with the debut of its Frontier Stable Token.

Governor Mark Gordon told Bloomberg News in July he’s been a “cautious adopter” of the coin, more concerned about making sure the token is reliable than about sales.

“We’re not trying to be the fastest horse in the barn,” Gordon said. “We’re trying to actually be the one that you can take out and make sure it works.”

Last year, PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster spoke with Joel Revill, CEO of Two Ocean Trust and a commissioner on the Wyoming Stable Token Commission, who said that the coin would operate on a “more transparent, lower cost, secure payment rail vs. the … archaic payment rails that Wyoming citizens, and everyone else, are subject to.”

And as stablecoins grow more mainstream, Revill said, “Wyoming doesn’t want to just sort of ‘go along and make sure we’re keeping up.’ We want to lead in this area, pass laws, and set up our regulators to provide clarity that doesn’t exist yet at the federal level or in other states.”