PwC’s U.S. leadership accelerated the firm’s move into cryptocurrency services as federal guardrails became clearer, with the GENIUS Act and related stablecoin rulemaking emerging as the primary drivers. We are treating this as a strategic de-risking moment that unlocked a broader go-to-market posture across audit, tax, and advisory for digital assets.
Paul Griggs, PwC’s U.S. CEO, positioned the shift as a direct response to reduced legal ambiguity and increased institutional conviction. “The GENIUS Act and the regulatory rulemaking around stablecoins, I expect, will create more conviction around leaning into that product and that asset class,” he said, tying the decision to the mid-2025 regulatory inflection. That framing makes the rationale clear: uncertainty was the constraint, and rule clarity is now the enabler.
GENIUS Act operating model implications
Passed and implemented in July 2025, the GENIUS Act established a comprehensive federal framework for payment stablecoins, anchored in licensing obligations for issuers, one-to-one reserve backing requirements, and reinforced consumer protections. From a controls perspective, this framework shifts stablecoins from a gray-zone product into a supervised instrument with defined accountability. That change is central to why professional services firms can scale involvement without relying on case-by-case interpretation.
The same regulatory posture also includes a broader climate shift referenced through new SEC rulemaking and appointments at key agencies. The net effect is a move toward structured supervision rather than fragmented, reactive enforcement. For institutions, that translates into clearer compliance pathways and more predictable governance requirements.
For compliance teams, the operational burden is immediate and specific: license readiness, demonstrable reserve transparency, stronger identification procedures, and auditor access for external verification. In practical terms, custody and payments firms are being pushed toward segregated custody expectations and mandatory reporting chains that require auditable process design. This is the type of environment where third-party assurance becomes a core dependency, not a nice-to-have.
PwC execution plan and service expansion
PwC translated the regulatory signal into a concrete expansion of its digital-assets practice, extending beyond traditional audit and tax into institutional-grade advisory delivery. The organizing principle is “verifiable controls,” meaning services that stand up to reserve scrutiny, disclosure expectations, and supervisory review. The build-out includes audit and assurance tied to reserve transparency and proof of liabilities, plus regulatory advisory for licensing, reporting, and stablecoin-related compliance requirements.
PwC also broadened coverage into cybersecurity and wallet-management protocols aligned with segregated custody expectations, alongside tax and transaction-structuring support for tokenization initiatives and payment-rail use cases. This approach positions PwC as an end-to-end partner for clients that need compliance, accounting, and operational resilience to move in parallel. The firm also strengthened internal expertise by rehiring senior practitioners with digital-asset experience and pursuing audit engagements with crypto-sector firms, including mining and tokenization clients.
Looking ahead, the implementation phase becomes the real proving ground: follow-on rulemaking and supervisory guidance after the GENIUS Act, licensing timelines, and the outcomes of external audits and reserve attestations. These deliverables will determine whether statutory obligations translate into predictable, auditable practice at scale. If that translation holds, the addressable market for compliant stablecoin and tokenization activity expands materially for issuers, custodians, and institutional users.
