The American Bankers Association (ABA) said it opposes the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s final stablecoin rule issued on Oct. 21 under the GENIUS Act, arguing that the agency stepped back from its earlier position on stablecoin yield and left crypto platforms able to keep existing arrangements in place.
Final rule drops the earlier rebuttable presumption
The OCC’s final rule still prohibits issuers from paying interest directly to stablecoin holders. But it removed a “rebuttable presumption” that had appeared in the proposal. Under that draft approach, an issuer would have been presumed to violate the ban if it agreed to pay interest or other returns to an affiliate or related third party and that party in turn agreed to pass the returns on to stablecoin holders.
That deletion is at the center of the banking industry’s criticism. ABA said the final version strips out protections that had targeted indirect yield arrangements.
Rob Nichols says issuers can still replicate yield
ABA President and CEO Rob Nichols said in a statement that the final rule removed safeguards aimed at indirect arrangements involving affiliates, exchanges, and other distribution partners. In his words, “payment stablecoin issuers can provide the economic equivalent of yield while technically avoiding the statutory prohibition.”
Nichols also criticized the OCC for not adopting a broader presumption that would block arrangements designed to evade the ban. He said those gaps could weaken the line Congress drew between payment stablecoins and traditional bank deposits and threaten funding that banks use to make loans.
He added that the association appreciates the OCC’s willingness to act again as it gains supervisory experience, but said “waiting until deposit outflows and economic harm occur is the wrong approach.”
OCC says payment stablecoins are still an emerging market
In the text of the final rule, the OCC said it decided to remove the rebuttable presumption after considering public comments. The agency said payment stablecoins remain an emerging market and that imposing such a presumption now would not be appropriate because it could be both too broad and too narrow at the same time.
Instead, the OCC said it will apply the statutory text and assess individual arrangements based on their facts. The agency plans to monitor those arrangements during issuer application reviews and routine supervision, then consider a clarifying rule on the yield prohibition after it has built up enough experience.
The OCC also kept authority to address evasive conduct, but chose not to define the terms “interest” and “yield.” The final rule and the GENIUS Act both take effect on Jan. 18, 2027.
Blockchain Association backs the change, TD Cowen sees a negative for banks
The Blockchain Association, a crypto industry group, praised the rule in its own statement. The group said the earlier presumption “went beyond what Congress provided in the GENIUS Act,” and that removing it brings the rule closer to the statutory text.
Lindsay Fraser, the association’s head of policy, said the rule sets clear and workable standards for reserves, redemption, and risk management.
According to The Block, a Washington research team at investment bank TD Cowen led by Jaret Seiberg said in a report that what is allowed and what is prohibited will remain unclear until courts weigh in, which is a negative for banks. The team also said the person who enters the White House in 2028 could appoint a new comptroller with a different view of what counts as “evasion.”
Whether third-party platforms such as Coinbase can distribute stablecoin yield had already been a point of dispute during negotiations over the Clarity Act, which remains stalled in the Senate.