OCC Proposes Stablecoin Yield Ban, Clearing Path for CLARITY Act
The US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has released a comprehensive 376-page proposal to implement the GENIUS Act, potentially settling the long-standing debate over stablecoin yields.
Core of the Proposal
The proposal stipulates that supervised entities cannot pay any form of interest or yield—whether in cash, tokens, or other consideration—“solely in connection with the holding, use, or retention” of a payment stablecoin.
This regulation is based on Section 4(a)(11) of the GENIUS Act, enacted in July 2025, which established a federal framework for payment stablecoins.
Preventing Circumvention
The OCC proposal goes further by introducing a rebuttable presumption:
If an issuer has an arrangement to pay yield to an affiliate or “related third party,” and that entity then pays yield to holders of the stablecoin, the issuer is presumed to be violating the ban.
Issuers can rebut this presumption with written materials, but the OCC emphasizes the “close nexus” between issuer payments and end-holder yield.
Key Exceptions
The proposal includes two explicit carve-outs:
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Merchant Discounts: The rule is not intended to prevent merchants from independently offering discounts for using payment stablecoins.
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White-Label Partnerships: Issuers may still share profits from the stablecoin with a non-affiliate partner in a white-label arrangement.
Implications for the CLARITY Act
Attorney Thania Charmani of Winston & Strawn commented on X that the OCC proposal aims to “resolve the debate on stablecoin yield through rulemaking,” potentially clearing the way for the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act of 2025 (CLARITY) to “proceed without that provision.”
This development has direct implications for companies like Coinbase, which have advocated for the ability to offer yield on stablecoin balances while operating within a fully regulated US framework.
Conclusion
With this proposal, the OCC draws a clear line: Stablecoin yield and GENIUS-compliant, OCC-supervised stablecoins are being placed on opposite sides of a regulatory boundary.
The proposal is open for 60 days of public comment. The industry will closely watch whether this regulation is finalized and how it will impact the stablecoin landscape in the United States.
Source: Cointelegraph, OCC Documentation