OCC drops proposed affiliate rewards presumption, but stablecoin yield ban stays

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) dropped a proposed presumption against certain stablecoin rewards routed through affiliates or related third parties in its Oct. 21 final GENIUS Act rule. The rule retains the prohibition on issuers paying holders interest or yield solely for holding, using or retaining a payment stablecoin, with older rewards programs facing the same scrutiny as newer ones.

The rule takes effect on Jan. 18, 2027. It covers permitted and foreign payment stablecoin issuers within the OCC’s jurisdiction and certain custody activities by OCC-supervised entities. Comptroller Jonathan V. Gould, posting as @USComptroller on X, said the agency had delivered the final rule ahead of schedule.

For exchange-run rewards, CryptoSlate’s reading is that removing the proposed test leaves the legality of individual arrangements unsettled. The change follows CryptoSlate’s earlier coverage of exchange stablecoin rewards.

CryptoSlate separately examined the rule’s reserve changes and banks’ deposit-flight concerns.

The proposal would have presumed that certain linked arrangements amounted to prohibited issuer yield: an issuer would pay interest or yield to an affiliate or related third party, which would in turn arrange payments to holders solely for holding, using or retaining the issuer’s stablecoin.

The proposed presumption would have applied to those specified payment relationships. The final rule removes it and retains the statutory yield prohibition.

The agency said the proposed test could have caught permissible arrangements while suggesting that impermissible arrangements outside its triggers were acceptable. Requiring a rebuttal in those circumstances risked imposing burdens without a matching benefit.

Instead, the OCC will apply the statute to the facts of each arrangement. It has not provided a list of permitted or prohibited rewards structures.

Its anti-evasion authority also remains. The rule explains that an issuer cannot avoid the prohibition simply by paying an agent to make interest or yield payments on its behalf that it could not make directly.

Transaction-based payments also require an assessment of the particular facts. Payments that do not constitute interest or yield, or that are not made solely in connection with stablecoin holding, use or retention, fall outside the statutory prohibition.