OCC Targets November for Final GENIUS Act Rules on USD1 Stablecoin

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) expects to complete its GENIUS Act implementing rules by November, after it weighs industry feedback on a framework that will govern payment stablecoin issuers such as USD1. Comptroller Jonathan Gould disclosed the timetable on Aug. 19 during the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium. The OCC’s main proposal, released on Feb. 25 and published in the Federal Register on March 2, was followed by a 60-day comment period that gave banks, stablecoin companies and other interested parties until May 1 to respond. It covers the full operating cycle of a payment stablecoin — a regulated instrument distinct from unbacked altcoin tokens — including issuance, reserve management, redemption, supervision, custody and the process for closing an issuer. Under the draft, OCC-supervised issuers would have to maintain eligible reserve assets and redeem stablecoins at par, with additional requirements for liquidity, risk controls, audits, reports and regulatory examinations. Application procedures would apply to nonbank companies seeking recognition as federal qualified payment stablecoin issuers, while separate provisions cover subsidiaries of national banks and federal savings associations, certain state-qualified issuers under OCC authority, and foreign issuers seeking access to the American market. The proposal also contains a capital and operational backstop, though its final amount and structure could change, and amendments that would place stablecoin issuers within existing OCC rules on capital standards, assessments, enforcement proceedings and corrective action. Gould said the agency would adjust the final regulations in response to comments from cryptocurrency companies, though he did not specify which provisions may be revised. Bank Secrecy Act, anti-money-laundering and Office of Foreign Assets Control requirements were excluded from the February proposal and are being addressed through separate rulemaking coordinated with the Treasury Department. A related OCC proposal on customer identification for permitted stablecoin issuers remains open for comment through Aug. 21. The law generally restricts U.S. payment stablecoin issuance to permitted issuers, and digital asset service providers will be unable to offer or sell noncompliant payment stablecoins to American customers once the applicable provisions take effect. Federal and state regulators will divide responsibility according to the issuer’s structure.

Speaking at the SALT-hosted Wyoming Blockchain Symposium in Jackson Hole, Gould said the agency is working “at a very fast pace” on the rulemaking and described the previous administration’s effort to remove risk from the banking system as “extremely shortsighted.” He added that digital asset approval activity has risen eightfold compared with the Biden era. The agency’s public licensing tracker lists 13 pending digital asset applications, including Payward National Trust Company, Revolut Bank US, EDX Trust, Agora National Trust Bank and PAYO Digital Bank. In August, the OCC said it received 40 de novo bank applications during the previous 18 months, compared with an annual average of fewer than four charter applications between 2011 and 2024. Several cryptocurrency companies, including Circle, Ripple, Paxos, BitGo and Fidelity Digital Assets, have received conditional national trust bank approvals since December 2025. National trust banks can provide custody, fiduciary, settlement and asset-servicing functions under OCC supervision, but their charters do not automatically permit customer deposits or conventional loans in the same way as full-service commercial banks. On Aug. 14, the OCC conditionally approved World Liberty Financial’s application to establish World Liberty Trust Company, a proposed institution that would issue and redeem the USD1 stablecoin, manage its reserves and provide custody services to institutional clients. Preliminary approval allows World Liberty to organize the trust bank but does not authorize it to begin operations; the OCC’s decision requires it to satisfy preopening requirements, maintain at least $20 million in eligible capital, apply for Federal Reserve Bank stock and receive written authorization before opening.

Taken together, the November target is an attempt to close a statutory gap left by the GENIUS Act, signed on July 18, 2025. The law gave federal regulators one year to issue implementing rules, but that deadline passed on July 18, 2026, with ten proposed rulemakings still pending. Under the statute, the payment-stablecoin framework takes effect on Jan. 18, 2027, or 120 days after the primary federal regulators issue final rules, whichever comes first. A November OCC finish would not, by itself, start that 120-day period unless the Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the National Credit Union Administration complete their parallel rulemakings. The operative requirement until then remains the proposal’s core: eligible reserves, par redemption and federal supervision for issuers that serve U.S. customers.