OCC to Finalize GENIUS Act Stablecoin Rules by November, Comptroller Gould Says
Key Takeaways
- •Comptroller Jonathan Gould announced at the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium that the OCC plans to publish final GENIUS Act implementation rules by November.
- •The GENIUS Act, enacted in July 2025 as the first major US federal law regulating digital assets, requires stablecoin issuers to back tokens 1:1 with high-quality liquid assets and prohibits paying interest or yield to holders.
- •Issuers with more than $10 billion in stablecoins outstanding will be subject to federal supervision, while smaller issuers may operate under state regimes.
- •Federal agencies must finalize regulations by January 18 before the law takes effect, after regulators missed an earlier July target, a delay that could produce regulatory uncertainty for stablecoin issuers.
- •The stablecoin market, led by Tether's USDT and Circle's USDC, represents hundreds of billions of dollars in circulation and has drawn participation from payment companies including Visa, Mastercard, and PayPal.

US Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould said the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) will have final rules for implementing the country's payment stablecoin law in place by November.
Speaking at the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium on Wednesday, Gould said that following the OCC's proposal to implement the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act, the agency would release finalized rules ahead of the law's scheduled January 2027 enactment. Gould, the 33rd Comptroller, previously served as the OCC's chief counsel during the first Trump administration and as senior counsel to the Senate Banking Committee.
Gould said the OCC "will have a final rule out by November" as the agency considers feedback from the crypto industry on the proposed rules it released in February. He added that he expects the regulator could begin processing applications related to stablecoin issuers starting in 2027.
The GENIUS Act, signed into law in July 2025 as the first major federal law regulating digital assets in the US, aims to create a regulatory framework for payment stablecoins. It requires issuers to back their tokens 1:1 with high-quality liquid assets such as cash and short-term Treasury securities, mandates monthly public disclosure of reserve composition, and prohibits issuers from paying interest or yield to stablecoin holders, while directing federal supervision for issuers with more than $10 billion in stablecoins outstanding and allowing smaller issuers to operate under state regimes. The law requires rules from the government agencies overseeing the products, including the OCC, the Treasury Department, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the Federal Reserve Board.
Although the OCC moved forward with a 376-page proposal to implement GENIUS in February, government agencies have only until Jan. 18 to finalize regulations before the law goes into effect. Several regulators have already published proposals and collected public feedback related to the implementation of GENIUS, but they did not release finalized rules by July, a delay that could result in regulatory uncertainty for stablecoin issuers.
The timetable matters for a market that now represents hundreds of billions of dollars in combined stablecoin circulation, led by Tether's USDT and Circle's USDC, and that has drawn deepening involvement from payment companies including Visa, Mastercard and PayPal. The OCC has already used its existing national trust charter authority to approve crypto firms, including stablecoin issuer Circle and Trump family-linked World Liberty Financial, but the GENIUS rules would set out the dedicated federal pathway for payment stablecoin issuers. Gould's November target leaves roughly two months before the statutory deadline, and attention will turn to whether the Treasury, FDIC and Fed complete their own rulemaking in time for issuers to seek approval before the law takes effect.
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