The US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency issued a final rule on 21 October implementing the GENIUS Act for payment stablecoins. The rule sets requirements for approved domestic and foreign issuers under OCC supervision, covering reserves, redemption, risk management and custody. Anti-money laundering and sanctions matters will be handled in a separate rule with the Treasury. The rule and the act take effect on 18 January 2027, and existing stablecoin rewards programmes get no automatic exemption and will be judged case by case.

What it means: This is the first complete rule from a federal banking regulator under the GENIUS Act, and it effectively creates the process through which banks and companies will be able to issue dollar stablecoins in the US. The core points, such as full reserve backing and fast redemption, resemble MiCA's requirements for e-money tokens in Europe. The most debated issue is rewards: the law bars issuers from paying interest solely for holding, but the OCC gave no clear examples of when an exchange programme crosses the line, and banking associations pushed back. That means uncertainty for the yield programmes many exchanges offer today. For Europe the rule matters because dollar stablecoins dominate worldwide and also circulate in the EU. A strict US framework may make them more trusted, but also more competitive against euro stablecoins and the digital euro. For Greek businesses using stablecoins in payments, MiCA remains the framework that applies here, but US supervision will shape which tokens are available.

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