Circle President Heath Tarbert told the House Financial Services Committee that the US risks losing financial influence unless it leads on stablecoin infrastructure. He pointed to the dollar's shrinking share of global reserves and pressed Congress to fully implement the GENIUS Act ahead of its January 2027 deadline.
A warning to lawmakers
Circle Internet Group President Heath Tarbert warned lawmakers on Wednesday that the United States could lose its financial influence if the next generation of money and capital markets develops on infrastructure governed outside the country. Testifying before the House Financial Services Committee, he argued that stablecoins, tokenized assets, and blockchain-based settlement are turning financial infrastructure into software, giving governments a new battleground over where money moves and which laws govern it.
According to Editorial Staff: "The dollar's position was built. It can be built upon." Tarbert added that it can also be spent down, and that which path prevails depends on more than the committee alone.
A shrinking share of reserves
Tarbert pointed to the dollar's declining share of global foreign-exchange reserves, 57.13% in the first quarter of 2026, down from more than 70% in the late 1990s. Yet he argued dollar-pegged tokens could reverse that slide, citing research estimating that roughly 98% of stablecoin value is denominated in US dollars.
He urged Congress to fully implement the GENIUS Act, which sets reserve requirements, redemption at par, disclosures, and anti-money-laundering compliance for payment stablecoins and takes effect no later than January 2027. Tarbert also called on lawmakers to close offshore loopholes so dollar stablecoin growth runs through supervised US issuers.
Regulatory wins and rising competition
The testimony follows a run of regulatory approvals for Circle. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency granted the company a national trust bank charter on July 10, 2026, and the New York Department of Financial Services followed three weeks later with a limited-purpose trust charter. However, Circle now faces the Open USD consortium, backed by Stripe, Coinbase, Visa, and BlackRock, along with bank-led stablecoins that gained a clear path to issue their own dollar-pegged tokens following federal licensing becoming available.
Circle issues USDC, the second-largest stablecoin by market cap, with a circulating supply of 73.7 billion tokens.
Sources: Editorial Staff / Yahoo Finance, Crypto Briefing
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