The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) announced a final rule to implement the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act. The rule and the Act take effect on 18 January 2027. It sets requirements for permitted payment stablecoin issuers and foreign payment stablecoin issuers under the OCC's jurisdiction, as well as certain custody activities conducted by OCC-supervised entities.
The regulation bans direct yield payments to customers from stablecoin issuers. The OCC said it would "evaluate" third-party yield arrangements on a case-by-case basis.
SCOPE OF THE RULE
The regulations implement the GENIUS Act for the issuance of payment stablecoins and related activities by entities subject to the OCC's jurisdiction. They cover all of the regulations the OCC must promulgate under the Act except those on the Bank Secrecy Act, anti-money laundering and Office of Foreign Asset Control sanctions. Those will be handled in a separate rulemaking in coordination with the Department of Treasury.
The Act defines a payment stablecoin as a digital asset that is, or is designed to be, used as a means of payment or settlement. Its issuer must be obliged to convert, redeem or repurchase it for a fixed amount of monetary value and must represent that it will maintain a stable value. The definition excludes national currencies, deposits, including those recorded using distributed ledger technology, and securities.
HOW YIELD PAYMENTS ARE TREATED
The OCC said that, depending on the facts and circumstances, a payment to stablecoin holders through an intermediary might be made solely in connection with holding, using or retaining a payment stablecoin, or at least in part for other reasons. Transaction-based transfers that did not amount to interest or yield, or that were not made solely in connection with holding, using or retaining a stablecoin, would not be prohibited.
The yield question was contested in earlier legislation. Early versions of the Clarity Act saw intense negotiations over whether crypto firms would be barred from issuing rewards on stablecoin balances that are "economically or functionally equivalent" to interest-bearing bank deposits. Bank trade groups argued that if issuers were allowed to use third-party arrangements to work around a ban, money could flow out of the banking system.
LEGISLATIVE AND POLITICAL BACKDROP
The Senate Banking Committee approved the Clarity Act in May, but the legislation ultimately failed as concerns arose over the potential for conflicts of interest. President Donald Trump reported $1.4 billion in income from his family's crypto businesses in 2025. Democrats in particular pushed for stronger language to prevent government officials from profiting off crypto rules.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement on Wednesday: "Just as President Abraham Lincoln’s National Currency Act of 1863 established a national framework for bank-issued currency, the GENIUS Act establishes a federal framework for payment stablecoins in the digital age."
RULEMAKING PATH AND NEXT STEPS
The GENIUS Act was enacted on 18 July 2025. The OCC published its proposal to implement the regulations on 25 February 2026, and it appeared in the Federal Register on 2 March 2026. The agency received hundreds of comments from crypto-focused companies, community bankers, trade groups, academics and others.
The OCC will announce in a separate news release when it will begin accepting and processing applications and waiver requests from prospective permitted payment stablecoin issuers. From 18 July 2028, digital asset service providers generally may not offer or sell payment stablecoins to persons in the United States unless the stablecoins are issued by a licensed issuer, according to the Treasury.
The OCC's contacts for the final rule are Sarah Turney, assistant director, and Henry Barkhausen, Kevin Korzeniewski and Mark O'Horo, all special counsel. Daniel Borman, counsel, and Collin Berger, attorney, are also listed, all in the Chief Counsel's Office.