The Big Loser From the ‘Genius Act’ Is $156 Billion Crypto Giant Tether
《天才法案》最大输家：1560 亿美元加密巨头 Tether

The legislation, which passed the Senate last week, aims to bring more oversight to stablecoins—digital tokens with a fixed price, typically $1. Stablecoins function as a bridge from regular money to the crypto world, allowing people to make payments or send funds overseas using the technology behind bitcoin, but without bitcoin’s wild volatility.
上周在参议院通过的该法案旨在加强对稳定币的监管。这类数字代币价格通常锚定 1 美元，充当着传统货币与加密世界的桥梁，使人们能够运用比特币底层技术进行支付或跨境汇款，同时规避比特币的剧烈波动。

The Genius Act would require stablecoin issuers to underpin the value of their tokens with reserves of cash, short-term Treasurys and similarly safe assets. Larger issuers would be required to publish annual, audited financial statements. That is bad news for Tether, which commands roughly two-thirds of the stablecoin market with $156 billion in circulation. 
《天才法案》要求稳定币发行方以现金、短期国债等安全资产作为储备金来支撑代币价值。大型发行机构还需公布经审计的年度财务报表。这对占据稳定币市场约三分之二份额、流通量达 1560 亿美元的泰达币而言是个坏消息。

Tether’s stablecoins are partly backed by bitcoin and precious metals and the company has resisted being fully transparent about its finances. That means the legislation could make it untenable for Tether to keep operating in the U.S., said Scott Armstrong, a former federal prosecutor who handled crypto cases.
泰达币的稳定币部分由比特币和贵金属支持，该公司一直拒绝完全公开其财务状况。曾处理加密货币案件的前联邦检察官斯科特·阿姆斯特朗表示，这意味着该法案可能使泰达币难以继续在美国运营。

“It could definitely put Tether in a pinch,” said Armstrong, now a partner at law firm McGovern Weems. “There’s no ambiguity about those requirements. For anyone to participate now in the U.S. market and the stablecoin regime, they have to take those steps.” 
"这绝对会让泰达币陷入困境，"现任 McGovern Weems 律师事务所合伙人的阿姆斯特朗表示，"这些要求非常明确。任何想要参与美国市场和稳定币体系的主体，现在都必须采取这些措施。"

Representatives for Tether didn’t respond to requests for comment. Tether Chief Executive Paolo Ardoino has said the firm may launch a separate, locally issued stablecoin to maintain a foothold in the U.S.
泰达币代表未回应置评请求。该公司首席执行官保罗·阿尔多伊诺曾表示，可能发行单独的本地化稳定币以维持在美国的市场立足点。

The Senate legislation provides a three-year grace period for companies to be compliant with the new requirements. A companion bill under consideration in the House of Representatives gives issuers 18 months. Differences between the two would have to be reconciled before President Trump, who supports the Genius Act, can sign it into law. 
参议院法案为企业提供了三年的宽限期以满足新要求。众议院正在审议的配套法案则给予发行方 18 个月过渡期。在支持《天才法案》的特朗普总统签署成为法律前，两院必须协调解决法案差异。

With the prospect of a legal framework that could make stablecoins widely used for payments, banks have explored teaming up to offer a joint stablecoin, while Walmart and Amazon.com have also considered issuing stablecoins, The Wall Street Journal has reported. 
随着有望出台的法律框架可能使稳定币广泛应用于支付领域，银行已开始探索合作推出联合稳定币，而沃尔玛和亚马逊也考虑过发行稳定币，《华尔街日报》报道称。

Tether’s stablecoins already are popular tools for international payments in emerging markets. They are also used for illicit activities such as sanctions evasion, researchers say.
Tether 的稳定币已成为新兴市场国际支付的流行工具。研究人员表示，它们也被用于逃避制裁等非法活动。

One of the Genius Act’s biggest beneficiaries is Tether’s homegrown U.S. rival Circle, which went public on the New York Stock Exchange this month and is the issuer of the second-largest stablecoin.
《天才法案》的最大受益者之一是 Tether 的美国本土竞争对手 Circle。该公司本月在纽约证券交易所上市，是第二大稳定币的发行方。

But it has a long way to catch up. Tether made $13.7 billion in profit last year, largely by collecting interest on the Treasury bills that back its stablecoin and gains on its bitcoin and gold holdings. Circle, whose stablecoin has less than half the circulating supply of Tether’s, earned $156 million in 2024. Circle shares jumped 34% the day after the Genius Act passed the Senate.
但 Circle 要迎头赶上还有很长的路要走。Tether 去年实现 137 亿美元利润，主要来自支撑其稳定币的美国国债利息收入，以及比特币和黄金持仓的收益。Circle 的稳定币流通量不足 Tether 的一半，2024 年仅盈利 1.56 亿美元。参议院通过《天才法案》次日，Circle 股价暴涨 34%。

For years, Tether was dogged by worries that it didn’t have sufficient reserves to underpin the $1 value of its stablecoins. In 2021, to settle an investigation by the New York attorney general that Tether had covered up an $850 million shortfall, the firm began releasing quarterly attestations about its reserves. Those attestations aren’t the same as a full public audit.
多年来，外界一直担忧 Tether 没有足够的储备金来维持其稳定币 1 美元的价值。2021 年，为和解纽约总检察长关于 Tether 隐瞒 8.5 亿美元资金缺口的调查，该公司开始每季度发布储备金证明。但这些证明与完整的公开审计并不相同。

Some of the assets Tether is using for reserves, including bitcoin, could lose their value during a broad market drawdown, increasing the risk that Tether holders might be unable to redeem their tokens for $1 apiece.
泰达公司用作储备的部分资产（包括比特币）可能在市场普遍下跌时贬值，这会增加泰达币持有者无法以 1:1 比例兑付美元的风险。

Under the Genius Act, stablecoin issuers must register with U.S. regulators—unless they are regulated by a foreign country whose rules are deemed to be similar to those of the U.S. Tether recently moved its headquarters to El Salvador and acquired a license there to provide crypto services. The firm was previously domiciled in the British Virgin Islands. 
根据《天才法案》，稳定币发行方必须向美国监管机构注册——除非其已受到与美国规则相似的外国监管。泰达近期将总部迁至萨尔瓦多，并取得该国加密货币服务牌照。该公司此前注册地在英属维尔京群岛。

“El Salvador is, in this moment, the only country that has a proper, intelligent, very thorough stablecoin regulation,” Ardoino told CNBC in a recent interview.
"萨尔瓦多目前是唯一拥有恰当、明智且完备的稳定币监管法规的国家，"阿尔多伊诺近期接受 CNBC 采访时表示。

Tether could maintain its access to U.S. markets if the Trump administration deems El Salvador to have sufficiently strong stablecoin rules. The country’s president, Nayib Bukele, has partnered with Trump on accepting deportees, and the two leaders had a warm meeting in the Oval Office in April. 
若特朗普政府认定萨尔瓦多的稳定币监管足够严格，泰达仍可维持其美国市场准入资格。该国总统布克尔曾与特朗普就接收被驱逐者达成合作，两位领导人四月还在白宫椭圆形办公室进行了亲切会晤。

Another Tether ally is Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who led financial-services firm Cantor Fitzgerald before he joined the administration. Cantor holds most of Tether’s Treasury portfolio, and has invested in Tether through a convertible bond. Lutnick agreed to transfer his ownership stake in Cantor to his children when he joined the cabinet.
泰达公司的另一位盟友是商务部长霍华德·卢特尼克，他在加入政府前曾执掌金融服务公司 Cantor Fitzgerald。Cantor 持有泰达公司大部分国债投资组合，并通过可转换债券对泰达进行了投资。卢特尼克在加入内阁时同意将其在 Cantor 的所有权股份转让给子女。

Tether exited from the European Union earlier this year rather than comply with new EU rules on stablecoins. Similarly, the firm has the option to exit from the U.S. and double down on its thriving business in Asia, Latin America and other emerging markets. Most of the trading volume in Tether’s stablecoins—which often exceeds $100 billion a day—is on platforms based outside the U.S., particularly Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange. 
今年早些时候，泰达公司选择退出欧盟市场，而非遵守欧盟关于稳定币的新规。同样，该公司也有权选择退出美国市场，并加倍押注其在亚洲、拉丁美洲和其他新兴市场蓬勃发展的业务。泰达稳定币的每日交易量常超千亿美元，其中大部分交易发生在非美国平台，尤其是全球最大加密货币交易所币安。

The Genius Act would require stablecoin issuers to fulfill law-enforcement requests to seize cryptocurrency, carry out bank-level customer checks and report suspicious transactions. Tether says it has complied with law-enforcement requests to freeze stablecoins used for illicit activity.
《天才法案》将要求稳定币发行商配合执法部门扣押加密货币的请求、执行银行级别的客户审查并报告可疑交易。泰达公司表示已配合执法部门冻结用于非法活动的稳定币。

Under the Biden administration, the Justice and Treasury Departments were investigating Tether for possibly violating anti-money-laundering and sanctions rules, because of its stablecoins’ alleged use by individuals and groups blacklisted by the U.S., from Russian arms dealers to Hamas. It couldn’t be learned if the probes are continuing.
在拜登政府执政期间，司法部和财政部曾对 Tether 展开调查，因其稳定币涉嫌被美国列入黑名单的个人和团体使用，从俄罗斯军火商到哈马斯组织。目前尚不清楚这些调查是否仍在进行中。

Ardoino visited the U.S. for the first time in March and told a conference in New York, “People were saying that if I was coming to the U.S., I would be arrested.”
阿尔多诺三月份首次访问美国时，在纽约的一场会议上表示："人们之前都说，如果我来美国就会被逮捕。"

Write to Alexander Osipovich at alexo@wsj.com, Vicky Ge Huang at vicky.huang@wsj.com and Angus Berwick at angus.berwick@wsj.com
联系记者：亚历山大·奥西波维奇(alexo@wsj.com)、黄薇琪(vicky.huang@wsj.com)和安格斯·贝里克(angus.berwick@wsj.com)

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