On 21 October 2026 the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency published a final rule implementing the GENIUS Act for payment stablecoins and for some custody activity at firms the OCC already supervises. News release 2026-92 is the cover note. The rule text is a new part of the Code of Federal Regulations, 12 CFR part 15, plus edits to capital, fees, and enforcement parts the agency already had. The effective date on the release is 18 January 2027. That is the same day the statute’s main obligations take effect. A final rule on 21 October does not move the calendar to today.
The GENIUS Act is a stablecoin statute. It is not MiCA, and it is not a dollar. This release is the banking agency writing the part of that statute it was told to write. It is not a second law. The release says the rule covers every regulation the OCC itself must issue under the Act except the Bank Secrecy Act, anti-money-laundering, and sanctions pieces, which wait for a separate rulemaking with the Treasury. A stablecoin rule with the crime-finance chapter missing is unfinished on purpose. It is not a waiver of those laws.
What happened
The yield ban stays. A permitted issuer may not pay a holder interest or yield, in cash or tokens or anything else, solely for holding, using, or retaining the payment stablecoin. The proposal would have added a presumption that certain contracts with affiliates and related firms counted as that ban. The final rule drops the presumption. Dropping a presumption is not dropping the statute. The OCC’s own explanation says an agent who pays holders on the issuer’s behalf is still the issuer paying, and that calling interest by another name does not make it something else. What the agency refused to do is decide, in advance, that every rewards programme sitting next to a stablecoin is illegal. Facts still matter. A banner that says “yield is back” has not read the sentence that starts with “solely”.
Deposits are outside the ban for a more basic reason. The Act’s definition of a payment stablecoin excludes deposits, including a deposit recorded on a distributed ledger. Interest on a bank deposit is interest on a deposit. JPM Coin on Ethereum is a bank deposit is the product version of that carve-out, from two days earlier. It is not an issuer licensed under this rule.
Capital is a floor plus a judgement. The final rule keeps a $5 million minimum and extends it past the startup years the proposal had limited it to. Above the floor, the OCC still sets an amount issuer by issuer, from the business it actually runs, and says it will make each issuer disclose the number quarterly. The operational backstop is a separate pool, sized to the prior 12 months of total expenses, in liquid assets. An issuer can ask to leave a one-time expense out of that count. Five million dollars and a year of bills are a cushion for the company. They are not a reserve behind your token, and they are not insurance of the token in a wallet.
Applications are the part that is not open. The news release says the OCC will put out another release when it starts accepting applications and waiver requests. The rule text ties that start to a paperwork clearance. A waiver, if one is later granted, can last up to 12 months from the effective date and does not have to cover every requirement. Treasury published the GENIUS Act’s state forms is a different file: how a state asks to be treated as close enough to the federal regime. A form for states is not this rule, and neither document is a licence in a drawer you can already hold.
Why it matters
If you hold USDC, USDT, or another dollar token, nothing in this release redeems it, freezes it, or insures it. The question it changes is who, after 18 January 2027, is allowed to issue a payment stablecoin into the United States, and what cushion that issuer must keep. A token from an issuer that never files is not retroactively blessed because a rule exists. A token from an issuer that does file is still that company’s liability. See what is USDC? and what is Tether (USDT)?. Regulation is a process memo, not permission.
“Stablecoins can pay interest again” and “stablecoins are now bank deposits” are the two captions this text will not support. The ban on yield solely for holding is still in the rule. The deposit carve-out is for deposits, which were never payment stablecoins under the Act. A rewards programme run by an exchange, a wallet, or an affiliate can fall inside the ban or outside it. The OCC deleted the shortcut that would have presumed the answer. It did not delete the question.
What happens next
A separate release that actually opens the application desk. A later rule on illicit finance, written with the Treasury. Quarterly capital numbers, once there are issuers to publish them. And 18 January 2027, which does not become 21 October because the PDF was early. Watch occ.gov for 2026-92 and for the notice that applications are being accepted. We will not treat a final rule as a reason to buy or sell a dollar token.
Not legal advice. Not a finding that any stablecoin complies. Not a recommendation of any token, issuer, or bank.
