Miles Jennings, head of policy and general counsel at a16z Crypto, said the GENIUS Act makes it difficult for future hostile US administrations to reverse the migration of finance onto blockchains.

Jennings delivered the keynote on global digital asset policy at the a16z Crypto Korea Summit in Seoul on October 1, 2026. The event took place at the Chosun Palace Gangnam Hotel in the city's Gangnam district.

His argument centered on the statute's structure. The GENIUS Act, signed into law on July 18, 2025, establishes a federal framework for payment stablecoins — dollar-pegged tokens that move value across crypto networks. Because Congress wrote the rules into law rather than leaving them to agency discretion, Jennings argued, the framework anchors stablecoin regulation in a form that resists reversal by any single administration.

The distinction matters. Reversing a statute generally requires Congress to act again, a slower and far more public process than unwinding agency guidance. The GENIUS Act reinforces that durability through firm operational requirements, most notably a mandate that stablecoin issuers hold 1:1 reserves in high-quality liquid assets.

Jennings described the act as a foundational measure. In his framing, it gives decentralized protocols room to grow while adding clarity and stability to the broader regulatory picture for digital assets in the United States.

A Seoul gathering with institutional weight

The summit drew representatives from a range of crypto infrastructure projects, including Morpho, Digital Asset and OP Labs. Discussions focused on how decentralized finance could transform institutional finance, and speakers examined what onchain infrastructure could mean for integrating artificial intelligence into financial workflows.

The event forms part of a16z's broader push into Asia. The venture firm announced its first Asian office, located in Seoul, in December 2025.

The timing also placed the summit in a crowded stretch of policy activity in the South Korean capital. In September 2026, events including the Upbit Institutional Summit, known as UIS 2026, featured stablecoin discussions with US officials in attendance. EastPoint: Seoul 2026 also hosted high-profile policy conversations. At those gatherings, US officials reiterated their commitment to refining legislation around stablecoins and related technologies.

What durability means for market structure

The operational consequences of a statute-backed stablecoin regime are concrete. A clearly defined regulatory environment could give stablecoin issuers improved access to traditional financial markets and institutional investors. That access, in turn, could enhance liquidity and market stability across dollar-pegged token markets.

For Asian participants, the calculus runs through alignment. As South Korea and the broader region deepen engagement with digital asset infrastructure, convergence with US rules could encourage cross-border investment and joint initiatives between American and Asian firms.

The signals from US officials in Seoul suggest the work is not finished. They discussed refining stablecoin legislation and working toward effective market structure and compliance frameworks — indications that the GENIUS Act is a starting point rather than the final word on US digital asset regulation.

With reserve requirements now codified in statute and Congress the only realistic path to unwind them, issuers, banks and protocol developers face a materially lower risk of regulatory reversal as they build stablecoin-linked infrastructure in the years ahead.