The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency issued the first final rule under the GENIUS Act on Wednesday, setting out how stablecoin issuers operate, including their third-party relationships with exchanges, and the rule is scheduled to take effect on January 18. The act bans issuers from paying rewards made “solely” for holding stablecoins, but the OCC has not offered examples and gives no safe harbor for existing exchange reward programs, which must win its case-by-case approval. The agency said a reward made at least in part for other reasons could fall outside the ban. Banks view such rewards as a threat to customer deposits and lobbied for further changes in the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, which did not advance in a key Senate vote last month. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called the rule a clear, practical foundation for private-sector innovation.
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Related tickers and likely impact
BTC/USDT
• NeutralBitcoin
Relevance: low
| Market | Crypto |
|---|---|
| Exchange | Binance |
| Sector | Layer 1 |
| Market cap | $1.6T |
| Close on 10/20/2026 | 83,028.15 |
| Change that session | +1.33% |
ETH/USDT
• NeutralEthereum
Relevance: low
| Market | Crypto |
|---|---|
| Exchange | Binance |
| Sector | Layer 1 |
| Market cap | $294.2B |
| Close on 10/20/2026 | 2,449.20 |
| Change that session | +1.71% |
Impact is scored by AI from the headline and may be wrong. It is not investment advice.
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