The OCC has finalised the first GENIUS Act stablecoin rule: what is in it?

What happened?

On 21 October 2026 the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) issued a final rule implementing the GENIUS Act (Public Law 119-27), the US federal law for payment stablecoins signed on 18 July 2025. According to OCC Bulletin 2026-50, it covers “all of the regulations” the OCC must write under the Act except those on the Bank Secrecy Act, anti-money laundering and OFAC sanctions, which will come in a separate rulemaking coordinated with the Treasury.

It is the first final rule from any of the federal stablecoin regulators. The OCC’s release states: “The final rule and the GENIUS Act take effect on January 18, 2027.” The OCC will announce separately when it begins accepting applications and waiver requests. For the law itself, see the GENIUS Act explained.

Who does the rule apply to?

The bulletin lists national banks, federal savings associations and federal branches and their subsidiaries; non-bank firms seeking to become federal qualified payment stablecoin issuers; foreign payment stablecoin issuers; and state qualified issuers that fall under the OCC’s authority. Most of the provisions sit in a new part of the OCC’s regulations, 12 CFR Part 15, covering activities, reserve assets, redemption, risk management, audits and reports, custody, applications, supervision of foreign issuers, and capital.

What does it require?

The OCC proposed the rule on 25 February 2026 and, according to Sidley Austin’s summary, received about 328 comments. The final version, as summarised by Sidley and reported by CoinDesk:

Who can now become an issuer?

The rule is the route by which a firm that is not a bank subsidiary — a payments company, for example — can apply to the OCC to become a federal qualified payment stablecoin issuer, one of the three kinds of permitted issuer the Act allows. It also sets the terms for national banks that want to issue through a subsidiary, and for OCC-supervised banks that hold stablecoins or their reserves in custody for others. CoinDesk reports OCC officials saying the rule creates opportunities for a range of institutions, including community banks.

Nobody can be approved yet: the OCC has not opened its application window, and the Act itself does not take effect until 18 January 2027. Issuers already operating will need to fit within one of the permitted categories, or serve US customers as a qualifying foreign issuer, before the Act’s restrictions on service providers apply three years after enactment, in July 2028.

What changed on stablecoin rewards?

The most debated part of the rule is how far the Act’s ban on yield reaches. Section 4(a)(11) bars issuers from paying holders interest or yield “solely” for holding, using or retaining the stablecoin. Exchanges and other platforms have offered rewards on stablecoin balances, and banks have argued that such rewards compete with deposits.

• Presumptions dropped. The proposal had included rebuttable presumptions that certain arrangements between issuers and affiliates or third parties were prohibited yield. The final rule removes them in favour of a case-by-case assessment.
• No grandfathering. CoinDesk quotes the OCC: “The OCC declines to presume that rewards programs that predated the GENIUS Act comply with the GENIUS Act.”
• “Solely” matters. CoinDesk reports that the OCC gave significant weight to the word “solely”: a reward paid at least partly for other reasons falls outside the ban.
• Congress may still act. CoinDesk reports that the OCC said it “must implement the GENIUS Act’s yield prohibition, as enacted” unless new legislation passes; the CLARITY Act market-structure bill, which some banks wanted to use to tighten the ban, failed to advance in a Senate vote in September 2026.

What comes next?

Several pieces are still open. FinCEN and OFAC proposed AML and sanctions programme rules for issuers on 8 April 2026; the FDIC and NCUA have proposals for bank and credit-union subsidiaries; and Treasury’s August 2026 proposal will decide how foreign issuers can serve US customers. CoinDesk reports that not all required rules are expected before the January effective date. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent praised the OCC rule as a practical foundation for private-sector innovation, according to CoinDesk.

Why does it matter outside the US?

Almost all stablecoins in circulation are dollar tokens, so the US rulebook sets the terms for much of the market. Foreign issuers that want to serve US customers will need a comparability finding from Treasury and OCC registration, and the reserve, redemption and capital rules the OCC has now written will be the benchmark those issuers are measured against. For how other jurisdictions approach the same questions, see MiCA and stablecoins, Hong Kong’s Stablecoins Ordinance and India and stablecoins.