US OCC Proposes Rules to Promote Payment Stablecoin Growth

The GENIUS Act, enacted on July 18, 2025, created the first comprehensive U.S. federal framework for payment stablecoins. It generally limits issuance in the United States to federally or state-qualified entities and extends obligations to exchanges, custodians and other digital asset service providers. The framework matters because it will determine how dollar-linked tokens, including those issued offshore, can be created, marketed and sold to U.S. customers.

The Treasury Department published a proposed rule on Aug. 18, 2026, defining terms including “issue,” “offer or sell” and “located in the United States,” with extraterritorial reach when transactions involve people in the country. Foreign issuers could qualify if their home regime is deemed comparable and they register with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Comments are due Oct. 19; knowing participation in unlawful issuance can carry fines of up to $1 million per violation and as much as five years in prison.

The GENIUS Act creates a federal framework for payment stablecoins, setting standards for reserve backing, disclosures and regulatory oversight. Signed by President Donald Trump, the law is intended to give banks and nonbank issuers a clearer route to offering dollar-linked tokens. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is responsible for translating key provisions into detailed licensing, operating and risk-management requirements.

The OCC is accelerating its rulemaking and has pledged to issue final GENIUS Act regulations by November 2026. Applications from prospective stablecoin issuers are expected to begin in 2027, making the timetable important for firms preparing to enter the new federal regime. The final rules will determine how issuers qualify, demonstrate reserve compliance and operate under ongoing supervision.

Stablecoins typically maintain their value through assets denominated in U.S. dollars and have become an important dollar channel for crypto trading and cross-border payments. The United States signed the GENIUS Act into law on July 18, 2025, establishing a federal issuance framework for the first time. It requires every $1 token to be backed by at least $1 in eligible reserve assets. Stablecoins, however, are not bank deposits and are not covered by FDIC deposit insurance.

The FDIC board approved a proposed rule on April 7, 2026, and published it in the Federal Register on April 10. The proposal would require issuers under its supervision to meet standards covering reserve assets, redemption within two business days, capital, risk management and custody. The OCC issued its own proposal on February 25, followed by customer identification rules proposed by five federal agencies on June 18. Final rules had yet to be issued by the July 18 statutory deadline.

U.S. President Donald Trump signed the GENIUS Act into law on July 18, 2025, creating the first federal framework for payment stablecoins, with requirements covering reserves, redemptions and anti-money-laundering controls. The law also preserves a state regulatory pathway. Issuers with aggregate circulation of no more than $10 billion may opt for state oversight if the state regime is substantially similar to the federal framework and receives approval from the Stablecoin Certification Review Committee.

The U.S. Treasury Department proposed its first implementing rules on April 1, 2026, setting out principles for assessing whether state regimes are substantially similar to the federal framework. The proposal was published in the Federal Register on April 3, opening a 60-day comment period that ran through June 2. On June 16, a bipartisan group of senators including Cynthia Lummis again urged the Treasury to specify the process and timeline for states to seek certification on an ongoing basis, preventing state oversight from being rendered ineffective.

The US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) is advancing payment stablecoin oversight under the GENIUS Act, using Bulletin 2026-24 to translate statutory requirements into a regular reporting regime. Stablecoins hold cash and short-term assets as reserves, making liquidity and asset quality critical to redemption capacity. The new system therefore places reserve risk, operating conditions and financial soundness under continuous supervision.

The OCC issued Bulletin 2026-24 in 2026, requiring supervised stablecoin issuers to file confidential PS-01 reports weekly and PS-02 financial reports quarterly. This will produce approximately 52 short-cycle monitoring reports and four quarterly financial assessments each year. The bulletin specifies no particular monetary threshold, focusing instead on a dual-track system of short-term risk monitoring and medium-term financial verification.

The New York State Department of Financial Services established a state-level framework for U.S. dollar stablecoins in June 2022, requiring full reserves, redemption rights and independent attestations. After the U.S. GENIUS Act was signed into law on July 18, 2025, state regimes must be substantially consistent with federal standards, a requirement that will determine whether licensed issuers including Circle, Paxos and Gemini can continue operating.

NYDFS unveiled the proposal on June 9, 2026, opening a 10-day pre-proposal comment period to be followed by a 60-day consultation after formal publication. The rules would limit reserve concentration with any single custodian and cover seven categories of risk management, including internal controls, cybersecurity and internal audits. Issuers with $25 billion in circulation would have to hold at least 0.5% of reserves in safeguarded deposits each day, capped at $500 million. The rules would take effect alongside the GENIUS Act, with existing operators receiving a 12-month transition period.

Stablecoins use fiat currency reserves to maintain their value and have gradually become a settlement tool for payments and crypto markets. The United States enacted the GENIUS Act on July 18, 2025, generally allowing only qualified issuers to issue stablecoins domestically. The law brings reserves, redemptions, capital and oversight under a federal framework, affecting market access for banks, nonbank firms and foreign issuers.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency proposed rules on February 25, 2026, covering reserve assets, custody, redemptions, risk management, audits, registration and capital backing. The comment period runs through May 1. The following day, Comptroller Jonathan Gould testified before the Senate Banking Committee alongside officials from the Federal Reserve and FDIC, with stablecoins and digital assets emerging as key regulatory topics.

Payment stablecoins are typically redeemable at a fixed value of $1, with issuers profiting from interest earned on reserves. Banks fear deposit outflows if those returns are passed on to holders. The GENIUS Act became law on July 18, 2025, establishing a framework for payment stablecoins. The CLARITY Act would divide oversight between the SEC and CFTC, making the yield dispute a key hurdle to advancing market-structure legislation in the Senate.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency unveiled a draft rule on March 2, 2026, that would prohibit permitted issuers from paying interest in cash or tokens solely for holding or using payment stablecoins. Indirect payments through affiliates would also be presumed to violate the rule. The proposal also covers state-regulated issuers overseen by the OCC with more than $10 billion in issuance, and comments are due by May 1. The same day, Senators Thom Tillis and Angela Alsobrooks finalized a compromise on yield provisions in the CLARITY Act.