Kevin Fitzgerald on GENIUS Act Audits and Why Every Company Needs a

What the GENIUS Act requires

Kevin Fitzgerald says the GENIUS Act will require monthly attestations certified by a third-party independent auditor. Reserves must be held in US dollars or US treasuries: "You can't have a bunch of Bitcoin that you're saying is backing your your stablecoin," he says. He credits the law, along with the wider change in regulation over the last couple of years, with bringing companies that left the US back and encouraging new companies to build there.

Years ago, he says, it was really just Circle putting out monthly attestations. He argues that the voluntary investment helped Circle become a leader in the space before anyone required it. He also notes that Anchorage issued the monthly attestation for USAT, the US instance of Tether.

Beyond the bank balance

Checking the bank account and the circulating supply is the simple part, according to Fitzgerald. The harder audit work is in controls, such as making sure only the appropriate employees hold the keys that can mint and burn a stablecoin. He says a CFO or CAO is usually the person driving these conversations inside a company.

He sees two business models. Firms like Circle run the process end to end. Firms like Bridge and mZero onboard companies that want to issue their own stablecoin but lack the resources to build the full infrastructure. In his view, every company now needs a stablecoin strategy, whether through treasury management or issuing its own.

Competing with the Big Four

Kevin Fitzgerald says speed is the biggest advantage ht.digital has, because Big Four firms carry layers of approval. He adds that everyone at the firm "speaks on chain," and that maybe 70% of staff are former Big Four professionals. The first hurdle in the US, he says, is getting people to know the firm and trust it.