Some celebrate Washington's embrace of stablecoins. In practice, it builds a switch to seize, block, and track. This is CBDC behavior with corporate branding. There's a better path.
Some folks in the libertarian crowd are seeing the GENIUS Act as a win -- a sign that the government finally gets crypto, fostering innovation under a federal framework. In theory, that would be amazing... if it were true. But when you look closer at what this legislation does and how it treats stablecoins, you find a Trojan horse: a path toward programmable money, surveillance, and control -- all under the guise of legitimacy. So, in an attempt to remove the wool from the eyes of those who still don't see it, here are ten reasons government-compliant stablecoins are practically indistinguishable from CBDCs.
The Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act of 2025, or the GENIUS Act, creates the first federal regulatory framework for payment stablecoins. It mandates 1:1 backing with U.S. dollars or Treasuries, subjects issuers to AML/KYC rules, and orders regular reserve audits. Crucially, it even requires that issuers have built-in tech to freeze, seize, or burn stablecoins on command -- turning them into permissioned digital money. The law passed with overwhelming bipartisan support, a rare feat outside war or corporate bailouts.
All the safeguards promised by the GENIUS Act -- reserve transparency, consumer protection, auditability -- sound good until you realize they empower control, not freedom. The result? A financial system where money is programmable, freezeable, and trackable -- controlled by issuers who must obey the state.
If you thought stablecoins were a refuge, the GENIUS Act just turned them into a white-label CBDC. The answer isn't better government-compliant stablecoins -- it's privacy by design. Projects like Zano and tools like the Confidential Layer are the only real firewall left. Also, they have their own stablecoin, and it's the exact opposite of everything you read above. These solutions and others like them offer a path to escape the permissioned chains before the cage closes in.
Because once your money can be taken without cause, it's no longer yours -- it's only yours until someone in power says otherwise.