Banking Regulator Races to Finalize GENIUS Act Stablecoin Rules

In brief

• OCC head Jonathan Gould said Wednesday the agency will finalize its GENIUS Act stablecoin rules by November, racing to meet a Jan. 18 statutory deadline before the law takes effect in January 2027 after blowing past an earlier July target.
• The 376-page proposal, released in February and open for comment through May, covers the full life cycle of a payment stablecoin—reserves, redemption at par, liquidity, risk management, audits, custody and wind-downs.
• Gould said the OCC expects to begin processing issuer applications in 2027 and reported an eightfold jump in digital-asset chartering activity versus the Biden administration.

The top U.S. banking regulator says it will finalize its rules for stablecoin issuers by November, moving to beat a fast-approaching deadline for the country's landmark digital-dollar law.

Jonathan Gould, head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, laid out the timeline Wednesday at the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium, an event hosted by SALT in Jackson. He said the agency is working at a rapid pace and expects to publish a final rule by November as it weighs feedback gathered from the crypto industry.

“We are very intent on moving quickly and getting a final rule out by November so that we will be able to start processing applications within the new year,” Gould said.