The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency finalized its rule implementing the GENIUS Act on October 21, 2026, setting the effective date at January 18, 2027. The final rule keeps the statutory ban on issuer-paid interest or yield on payment stablecoins but drops a proposed rebuttable presumption that would have treated pre-law rewards programs as compliant. The OCC also declined to create a safe harbor for those programs, saying Congress having notice of them doesn't amount to endorsement.
What the yield ban actually covers
The prohibition applies to interest or yield paid solely in connection with holding, using, or retaining a payment stablecoin. That word “solely” does real work in the rule. An agent paying holders on an issuer's behalf can fall inside the ban if the payment is tied solely to holding the coin. But indirect payments made partly for other reasons can sit outside the statutory language.
The OCC said it would judge arrangements on economic substance. In its own words, interest does not stop being interest merely because it is given a different name. The agency also kept its authority to address evasion of the yield prohibition.
Requests the OCC turned down
Commenters asked for several carve-outs. One proposal would have let issuers pass reserve yield to institutional holders while withholding it from retail holders. The OCC rejected that, noting the GENIUS Act doesn't draw a line between institutional and retail holders.
Requests for a general safe harbor covering DeFi arrangements, white-label partners, and broad categories of payments were also declined. The OCC said payments for bona fide services generally wouldn't be prohibited absent contrary facts, but it adopted no explicit safe harbor. A de minimis exception for small or incidental payments was refused on the grounds that the statutory yield prohibition doesn't contemplate one.
Tokenized deposits sit outside the ban
The final rule leaves tokenized deposits outside the yield prohibition. The statutory definition of a payment stablecoin excludes deposits, including those recorded using distributed ledger technology. That distinction matters for banks and others structuring products that look similar on the surface but are treated differently under the law.
Beyond rewards, the rule covers permitted and foreign payment stablecoin issuers under OCC jurisdiction, along with certain custody activities conducted by OCC-supervised entities. Redemption obligations for permitted issuers require clear and conspicuous procedures. Timely redemption may not exceed two business days following a request.
No cure period, and more rules to come
The OCC declined a commenter's request for a cure period for violations of the yield prohibition. It said it would exercise enforcement discretion based on facts and circumstances, leaving no formal window to fix a violation before action.
Bank Secrecy Act, anti-money laundering, and sanctions provisions are reserved for a separate rulemaking coordinated with Treasury. That means the compliance picture for stablecoin issuers won't be complete when this rule takes effect on January 18, 2027. Issuers weighing rewards programs against the yield ban now have a firm date and a clear signal that relabeling a payment won't change how the OCC sees it.
