Beyond the GENIUS Act: Regulatory Gaps and Operational Challenges in Stablecoin Adoption

<div> This paper examines the evolving role of Bitcoin within the digital payments ecosystem by combining on-chain transaction evidence with systematic analysis of U.S. regulatory and media discourse. Using monthly blockchain transaction data for Bitcoin (BTC), Tether (USDT), and USD Coin (USDC) from 2022 through 2025, the study documents a pronounced divergence between Bitcoin's economic significance and its declining relevance in payment-oriented blockchain activity. Major stablecoins, analyzed individually and in aggregate, account for the overwhelming majority of on-chain transactions, particularly following 2024. </div> <div> <br> </div> <div> To contextualize these usage patterns, the paper introduces a complementary text-based analysis of regulatory and institutional narratives surrounding digital assets. Lexicon-based measures capture how Bitcoin is framed relative to payment architecture concepts, governability, and programmability across distinct regulatory periods. The results indicate that while regulatory discourse increasingly emphasizes programmable, supervised, and dollar-linked digital instruments, Bitcoin is systematically framed as a speculative or commodity-like asset rather than as payment infrastructure. </div> <div> <br> </div> <div> Taken together, the findings suggest that Bitcoin's marginalization in payment systems is not merely market-driven but is reinforced by regulatory architectures that implicitly privilege stablecoins as the preferred medium for on-chain payments. The paper contributes to the literature on digital monetary systems by empirically linking usage data to regulatory framing, offering a replicable framework for analyzing how policy discourse shapes financial infrastructure evolution. </div>