Forbes: The stablecoin competition has entered an institutional phase prioritizing security.

Recently, Forbes published an in-depth article on the latest developments in the US stablecoin regulatory framework, highlighting CertiK's "2025 Skynet US Digital Asset Policy Report."

The report, citing CertiK's analysis, points out that with the continued advancement of key policies such as the GENIUS Act, the US digital asset industry is moving from broad principles to a new phase centered on specific requirements, enforceable regulations, and institutional compliance expectations. CertiK co-founder and CEO Ronghui Gu stated that in the future, issuers that will stand out will be those companies that have established mature, institutional-grade operating systems in reserve management, transparency, and infrastructure, and the industry as a whole is shifting towards a "security-first" approach.

Regulatory clarity has eliminated the uncertainty that has long hindered deeper institutional participation. However, in CertiK's analysis, the fading of regulatory ambiguity has revealed another bottleneck underestimated by many issuers: operational maturity. "As regulatory uncertainty gradually recedes, the frontier of competition has shifted to the operational level," said Gu Ronghui. "The most serious, undervalued challenge is concentrated at the infrastructure layer." One example mentioned in the report is the GENIUS Act's requirements for role-based access control on-chain. Issuers must assume the legitimate role of "freezer," supported by hardware security modules, multi-signature governance, and continuous monitoring mechanisms. The challenge is not simply adding a freezing function, but ensuring its security. Under no circumstances should attacked operational personnel be allowed to freeze or transfer assets. Beyond internal access control, multiple regulatory frameworks now require companies to comply with national cybersecurity baselines, such as the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework. New York State's Part 500 rules for financial institutions have also become part of emerging industry standards. Issuers entering federal regulatory environments must be prepared with SOC-level controls, audited incident response plans, and standardized service level agreements (SLAs). On top of this, anti-money laundering (AML) requirements are added, increasingly relying on automated sanctions screening, cluster analysis, and cross-chain suspicious activity tracking. This infrastructure is no longer optional but a necessary cost to compete in a regulated market where institutions will allocate billions of dollars through the most compliant issuers. The Competition Begins. For years, regulation has been seen as a major obstacle to stablecoin adoption. But that has changed. The U.S. now has an enforceable regulatory framework, Europe has introduced MiCA, and many Asian jurisdictions are modernizing their own regulatory frameworks. The question is no longer whether stablecoins will be regulated, but how issuers will compete under regulation. Stablecoins have entered a new era where trust is gained in much the same way as in traditional finance: by demonstrating that their operations, cybersecurity capabilities, and compliance systems can withstand institutional scrutiny. This is the shift captured in the CertiK report. Regulatory clarity will not level the playing field; rather, it will favor issuers most capable of accepting regulatory oversight. A wave of growth is coming, but not everyone will benefit. The ultimate winners will be issuers who no longer view stablecoins as crypto products, but as financial instruments. In the new, regulated environment, stablecoins are precisely such financial instruments.