The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the US banking regulator, published on Wednesday (21) the final regulation to implement the GENIUS Act, the law that establishes federal rules for payment stablecoins. The requirements take effect on January 18, 2027, but the decision leaves uncertainties about the legality of programs that offer rewards to users of these digital assets.
The rule establishes requirements for financial reserves, redemptions, risk management, custody, audits, and supervision. It also defines authorization and registration procedures for issuers subject to OCC jurisdiction, including certain banking institutions, nonbank companies, state-regulated entities, and foreign issuers.
The objective is to establish operational conditions and oversight mechanisms for the issuance of stablecoins used in payments. The regulation also provides requirements related to the liquidity of reserves and the ability of issuers to meet redemption requests.
Despite the final publication, implementation of the GENIUS Act is not yet complete. Provisions related to anti-money laundering and compliance with financial sanctions will be addressed in separate regulations, in coordination with the US Department of the Treasury. Other federal authorities also remain responsible for parts of implementing the law.
Prior rewards programs do not receive automatic protection
One of the most relevant issues involves the incentives offered by platforms that allow users to hold or use stablecoins, such as rewards programs associated with USDC and other dollar-pegged assets.
The GENIUS Act prohibits issuers from paying interest or yields to stablecoin holders solely for possessing, using, or maintaining these assets. The interpretation of this restriction in transactions involving intermediaries, however, caused disagreements during the drafting of the regulation.
In the final version, the OCC rejected the possibility of automatically treating as legal the programs that already existed before the law's approval, in July 2025.
"The OCC refuses to presume that rewards programs that predate the GENIUS Act are in compliance with the law," says the regulatory document.
The agency clarifies that the prior existence of these initiatives does not mean that the US Congress authorized their continuation. Thus, older programs will be evaluated under the same criteria applicable to those created later.
The decision does not represent an indiscriminate ban on rewards. The OCC removed from the initial proposal a rebuttable presumption of violation applicable to certain transactions with related companies and third parties, opting to examine each structure according to its specific characteristics.
This does not eliminate the restriction on indirect payments. According to the regulator, an issuer cannot simply use another company to distribute yields that it would be prohibited from paying directly. On the other hand, payments made for other reasons, and not exclusively for maintaining or using the stablecoins, may fall outside the legal prohibition.
The OCC also decided not to publish a general list of permitted or prohibited programs, nor to grant broad regulatory protection to specific types of rewards.
For exchanges, fintechs, and issuers, the consequence is that the existence of a commercial program does not guarantee its compliance with the GENIUS Act. The assessment will depend on factors such as the origin of the payments, the issuer's role, and the contractual relationship with any intermediaries.
The regulation therefore establishes an important part of the operational obligations of the US stablecoin sector, while the classification of certain rewards structures will continue to depend on applying the rules on a case-by-case basis.
