The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) published its final stablecoin rule under the GENIUS Act on Wednesday, becoming the first federal regulator to complete implementing regulations for stablecoins while Congress remains stalled on broader crypto legislation. For stablecoin issuers, exchanges, and the banks tracking deposit flows, the publication turns the GENIUS Act's broad mandates into concrete obligations with a fixed start date.

The final rule takes effect on January 18, 2027, the same day the GENIUS Act itself comes into force, giving companies a defined runway to prepare before the federal standards become binding.

The unresolved rewards question

Enacted on July 18, 2025, the GENIUS Act prohibits permitted stablecoin issuers from paying interest or yield on the tokens they issue. It left open whether exchanges and other third parties could offer similar “rewards” to holders.

Lawmakers were expected to settle that question in the CLARITY Act, a crypto market structure bill, but the measure stalled after the full Senate failed to advance it in a procedural vote. The delay prompted regulators to propose rules of their own.

In February, the OCC had floated a draft that would have presumed certain third-party reward arrangements to be banned yield unless proven otherwise. The final rule removes that presumption. An OCC official told reporters that the initial draft amounted to “only a guess” at how often companies might try to circumvent the restrictions, not a reflection of how the young stablecoin market actually operates. In place of a blanket assumption, the agency will now review each case individually — meaning exchanges and other third parties have no bright-line answer on whether a given rewards program passes until the OCC examines it.

Crypto platforms did not receive a green light, however. The ban on issuers paying interest directly still stands, and the OCC can act against any arrangement it views as a loophole.

Banking industry pressure

Banking groups have warned that stablecoins paying rewards could pull deposits away from community banks, citing a U.S. Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee estimate that up to $6.6 trillion in deposits could leave banks — a figure that shows the scale of what banks believe is at stake in the rewards debate.

On May 1, the American Bankers Association and 52 state bankers associations sent the OCC a letter urging the agency to broaden the presumption that third-party rewards constitute banned yield, so that it applies to all reward payments regardless of what they are called. The groups also asked the OCC to widen the definition of “related third party” to cover partners that distribute or promote stablecoins.

Crypto firms, including Coinbase, urged the OCC to read the ban narrowly, applying only to issuers that pay consumers directly. TD Cowen analyst Jaret Seiberg said months earlier that it is unclear how the rules can satisfy both banks and major crypto platforms, adding that some platforms want to keep paying yield in order to retain retail liquidity.

What the rule covers

The rule places most of the OCC's GENIUS Act requirements into a section of its regulations, 12 CFR 15. It sets out requirements for reserve assets, redemption, risk management, custody, and audits and supervision, and establishes rules for foreign issuers as well as state-regulated issuers moving into the federal system.

Anti-money-laundering requirements are not part of this rule. Those provisions will follow in a separate rulemaking conducted with the Treasury, so the full compliance picture for issuers will not be complete until that follow-up lands.

The OCC will announce at a later date when companies can apply to become issuers or request waivers. Until then, the standards are set but the application door has yet to open, and the open threads — individual rewards reviews, the Treasury AML rulemaking, and the stalled CLARITY Act — remain in motion.

Source: Cryptopolitan