Overview
- Comptroller Jonathan Gould said on Wednesday at the SALT conference that the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is intent on publishing a final GENIUS Act rule by November so it can begin processing stablecoin issuer applications in 2027.
- The OCC’s 376-page proposal, first released in February, would impose banklike duties on permitted payment stablecoin issuers including one-to-one permitted reserves, guaranteed redemption at par, liquidity and capital standards, custody rules, independent audits, and formal wind‑down procedures.
- Federal agencies missed the statute’s one-year implementation target of July 18, 2026, and the law’s effective date depends on timing: it takes effect on January 18, 2027 or 120 days after the primary regulators publish final rules, whichever comes first.
- Treasury and FinCEN are writing separate rules on anti‑money‑laundering, sanctions and customer identification and Treasury’s August NPRM would define when a stablecoin is treated as issued or offered in the United States, which could limit how foreign tokens reach U.S. customers.
- Industry activity has surged as firms seek federal charters and conditional approvals, which could concentrate issuance among well‑capitalized, supervised entities and prompt exchanges and platforms to relist, delist or restrict access to noncompliant stablecoins.