The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) said on Wednesday that it is seeking feedback on new proposed rules to implement the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS).
The guidance lays out how “regulated payment stablecoins” would be issued, backed, and supervised under the agency’s jurisdiction, and it is launching a 60-day public comment period to finalize the framework.
The U.S. market is expected to see a host of regulated stablecoins from non-banks, payment firms, and crypto institutions for tokenized TradeFi use cases.
OCC Releases Guidance to Implement GENIUS Act for Regulated Payment Stablecoins in the U.S.
The GENIUS Act, passed in both houses of Congress and signed into law by President Donald Trump in July 2025, is the first federal regulatory framework for payment stablecoins in the United States. The law allows a permitted financial firm to issue a payment stablecoin, but prohibits digital asset service providers from offering non-compliant stablecoins to American users.
The 376-page draft clarifies the OCC’s jurisdiction for implementing the stablecoin regulations, covering reserve asset standards, mandatory redemption at par, liquidity and risk management controls, audits, supervisory examinations, custody requirements, and application pathways for new issuers. The proposal also introduces a “capital and operational backstop” and amends existing capital adequacy and enforcement rules.
The agency stated that it will have regulatory or enforcement authority over certain permitted issuers, including subsidiaries of national banks and federal savings associations, federal and state qualified payment stablecoin issuers, and even foreign stablecoin issuers, which could pull offshore issuers seeking U.S. market access under federal oversight.
The proposal also stipulates other regulatory standards that align with the GENIUS Act, such as reserve requirements mandating at least one-to-one backing with highly liquid assets. It would tailor capital and liquidity requirements for issuers on a case-by-case basis, depending on the issuer’s risk profile. It reiterates that issuers must redeem stablecoins at par within two business days, while maintaining a robust, principles-based risk management system regarding operational transitions, cybersecurity, and third-party risks.
Notably absent from the document are provisions under the Bank Secrecy Act and sanctions rules, which the OCC said it will address separately with guidance from the U.S. Department of the Treasury. This proposal is just one piece in a government-wide effort to implement the GENIUS Act through coordinated rulemaking by the primary federal regulators, including the OCC, the Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the National Credit Union Administration.
GENIUS Act Expected to be Enacted in 120 Days, But Bankers Raise Deposit Flight Concerns
The GENIUS Act payment stablecoin regime is set to go into effect no later than January 2027, or 18 months after enactment. But it could kick in as soon as 120 days after the primary regulators coordinate and finalize implementing rules. This will shorten the transition window if the rulemaking progresses faster than the statutory 18-month deadline.
In August, the banking lobby groups wrote to Congress demanding the closure of what they described as loopholes in the GENIUS Act, warning that third-party yield offerings on stablecoins could trigger major deposit flights from traditional deposit accounts.
However, OCC chief Jonathan Gould had earlier dismissed bankers’ fears, telling attendees at the American Bankers Association (ABA) conference in October that any material deposit flight would not happen “overnight” or in an “unnoticed fashion.”
Munsheer Ahmed, founder and managing director of Finstep Asia, told crypto media outlet Decrypt that the regulation effectively brings the digital asset industry into the traditional finance world with “significant oversight and connectivity with the banking industry.” He noted that regulated stablecoins could be “potentially safer” than traditional banks in stress events, pointing out that banks operate on 10-20% capital ratios while stablecoin issuers are mandated to hold 100% reserves for 1:1 redemptions. Ahmed said this makes issuers “fairly solvent” if the rules are maintained.
He added that in an extreme market scenario, the lender of last resort will be the U.S. Federal Reserve, but this won’t directly backstop issuers; instead, it will support the underlying assets that form stablecoin reserves, which are largely US treasuries and cash equivalents.
