The US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has issued the first final rule implementing the GENIUS Act, setting out how it will assess stablecoin rewards programmes while other federal regulators continue work on their parts of the legislation.
The agency, which supervises national banks and trusts in the United States, is the first of several federal bodies to complete regulations under the act. Its rule was issued in January, although the wider implementation process remains unfinished.
A key area of attention is the treatment of yield and rewards linked to stablecoins. The final rule gives limited detail on which activities could be covered by the GENIUS Act’s broad prohibition on stablecoin yield being offered by issuers.
The absence of more specific guidance has not stopped the cryptocurrency industry from forming its own interpretation of the legislation. Industry participants have already taken the view that GENIUS allows the rewards programmes that have become common in stablecoin activity on exchanges.
However, the OCC has made clear that programmes already in existence will not receive preferential treatment. Existing schemes will be assessed under the same regulatory standards as any others when the agency decides whether they comply with the rules.
That means the fact a rewards programme was operating before the final rule was issued will not, by itself, determine whether it is permitted. The OCC’s assessment will instead focus on whether the activity meets the requirements established under the GENIUS Act.
The rule represents the first completed federal regulatory step under the act, but it does not resolve every question surrounding stablecoin rewards or yield. Other regulators are still preparing additional rules and guidance needed to put the legislation fully into effect.
The distinction between rewards programmes and prohibited issuer yield therefore remains central to the industry’s interpretation of the act. While exchange-based rewards have been widely adopted across stablecoin markets, the final rule confirms that established practice alone will not provide protection from regulatory scrutiny.
The OCC’s decision is likely to serve as an early reference point for the treatment of stablecoin-related activity as the remaining agencies complete their own implementation work. For now, the rule establishes that pre-existing rewards programmes must be considered on their individual regulatory merits, rather than being granted automatic approval because they began before the GENIUS Act took effect.
