ChainThink reports that on September 2, Heath Tarbert, President of Circle Internet Group and former CFTC Chair, testified before the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services in a hearing titled "Dollar Diplomacy in the Internet Financial System," calling for an enhanced regulatory framework for stablecoins and digital assets.
According to the Circle blog, Tarbert cited IMF data in his testimony, noting that the U.S. dollar’s share of global reserves has declined from over 70% in the late 1990s to approximately 57%, while the U.S. economy accounts for about one-quarter of global output—a gap sustained primarily by market depth, the supply of safe dollar-denominated assets, and trust in the U.S. legal system.
Currently, approximately 98% of the global stablecoin market value is denominated in U.S. dollars, and Tarbert believes this advantage should be captured by U.S.-based issuers regulated under the GENIUS Act, rather than flowing to offshore or foreign sovereign infrastructures.
Tarbert emphasized that stablecoins are merely a "dollar layer," and without clear U.S. legal jurisdiction over upper-layer market structures such as trading venues and custodians for tokenized assets, actual rules may still be set by foreign countries.
He also cited data showing that the market size of tokenized Treasuries and money market products has exceeded $16 billion, while the stablecoin market size is approximately $317 billion, representing over 50% year-over-year growth;
The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has approved five national trust bank charters; Circle Payments Network now has 175 financial institutions onboarded; and the CFTC has permitted clients to use USDC for futures margin payments.
Tarbert urges Congress to faithfully implement the GENIUS Act and accelerate the passage of the CLARITY Act to establish a clear U.S. legal framework for the digital assets market.