Stablecoins are digital dollars on a blockchain, and they are now one of the fastest-growing payment rails in the world. The federal GENIUS Act (2025) created the first national framework for payment stablecoins, with reserve, disclosure, and licensing rules for issuers. For Nashville businesses that means a real opportunity: settle payments in minutes instead of days, cut card and wire fees, and reach customers abroad. We help you capture that growth on a compliant footing. The next wave is agentic payments: AI agents that buy, sell, and settle on a person's or company's behalf, often over stablecoin rails, raising new questions about authority, liability, and consumer protection.
How an attorney helps
What having a lawyer on your side changes.
- Maps where your business fits under the GENIUS Act and Tennessee money-transmitter rules before you launch.
- Drafts merchant, wallet, and platform terms so customers, partners, and processors know who carries the risk.
- Sets up treasury and accounting policies for holding stablecoins, including reserves, custody, and tax treatment.
- Sets the mandates, spending limits, and liability terms for AI agents that send or receive money for you.
- Represents you with banks, payment partners, and regulators as rules are finalized.
What we handle
The issues that come up most in these matters.
- GENIUS Act analysis for issuers, wallets, exchanges, and payment platforms
- Accepting stablecoin payments: merchant terms, refunds, chargebacks, and disclosures
- Corporate treasury: holding stablecoins, custody, and reserve policies
- Tennessee and multi-state money-transmitter licensing questions
- AML, KYC, and sanctions compliance for stablecoin flows
- Stablecoin yield and rewards programs, and when they raise securities issues
- Agentic payments: authorizing AI agents to transact, spending caps, and audit trails
- Who bears the loss when an AI agent's payment goes wrong, from card and bank error rules to irreversible on-chain transfers
- Tax and accounting treatment of stablecoin receipts and payments
How it works
What to expect from start to finish.
- Use-case review. Who sends, holds, and receives the stablecoin, and who touches customer funds along the way.
- Regulatory map. GENIUS Act status, money transmission, AML, sanctions, consumer protection, and tax, in a written memo.
- Documents and partners. Customer terms, processor and custodian agreements, and internal policies.
- Launch and monitor. Updates as federal and state regulators finalize their rules.
Common questions
General information, not legal advice for your situation.
- What is the GENIUS Act?
- A 2025 federal law creating the first national framework for payment stablecoins. Issuers must be licensed, hold one-to-one reserves in cash and short-term Treasuries, and publish reserve reports. Regulators are still writing the implementing rules.
- Can my business accept stablecoins today?
- Yes. Most merchants use a processor that converts to dollars or holds the coins in custody. The legal work is in your customer terms, refund policy, accounting, and choosing compliant partners.
- Can stablecoins pay interest?
- The GENIUS Act bars issuers of payment stablecoins from paying interest or yield to holders. Rewards offered by third parties raise their own securities and consumer-protection questions.
- What are agentic payments?
- Payments started by an AI agent acting for a person or business, like an assistant that books and pays for travel or software that pays per-use fees in stablecoins. The law on who is responsible when an agent overspends or is tricked is still developing, so contracts and controls matter.
- Who is liable if my AI agent makes a bad payment?
- It depends on how the payment was authorized and which rails it used. Card and bank payments by consumers come with error-resolution rights; stablecoin transfers usually cannot be reversed. Clear mandates, limits, and vendor terms allocate the risk in advance.
- Are stablecoin payments taxable?
- The IRS treats digital assets, including stablecoins, as property. Receiving them as payment is income, and spending or converting them is a disposition that must be reported, even when the gain is near zero.
Meet Madison
A solo practice: the lawyer you meet is the lawyer on your case.
Structures we build
Structure
Merchant Acceptance Program
Best for: Retailers, venues, and service businesses that want lower payment costs.
Accept stablecoins through a payment processor that converts to dollars or holds them, with customer terms covering pricing, refunds, and disputes.
Structure
Corporate Treasury Allocation
Best for: Companies paying vendors or contractors abroad.
A board-approved policy for holding part of operating cash in stablecoins: approved coins, custody, limits, and reporting.
Structure
Payment Platform or Wallet
Best for: Fintech startups and apps adding digital-dollar features.
Software that lets users send, hold, or convert stablecoins. Licensing turns on whether you ever control customer funds.
Structure
State-Qualified Issuer Path
Best for: Issuers planning a smaller, regional, or niche stablecoin.
The GENIUS Act allows smaller issuers to operate under a state regulatory regime that meets federal standards, instead of a federal charter.
Structure
Cross-Border Payout Program
Best for: Businesses with global teams or royalty payees.
Pay international contractors, creators, or suppliers in stablecoins, with sanctions screening and local-law review built in.
Structure
Agentic Payment Program
Best for: Businesses using AI agents for procurement, subscriptions, or checkout.
Lets an AI agent buy, sell, or pay invoices for you over stablecoin or card rails, with written mandates, spending caps, and logs that make every payment authorized and traceable.
Structure
Tokenized Settlement for Real Assets
Best for: Tokenization sponsors and their investors.
Use stablecoins as the payment leg for tokenized real estate or other digital securities, so delivery and payment settle together.
Discuss your Stablecoins & Agentic Payments matter.
A free, confidential consultation. No obligation, and no pressure to hire us.