American cryptocurrency users will be able to keep earning on their stablecoin balances. The US banking regulator (OCC) has approved the final rules of the GENIUS Act. The main result of the reform: launching classic deposits and paying direct interest on digital dollars is now officially prohibited.
However, at the last moment the regulator abandoned a total ban on bonuses, leaving crypto exchanges a legal loophole. The new rules will take effect on January 18, 2027.
The new law sharply separates the concepts of “money” and “investments”. Companies that issue stablecoins (issuers) no longer have the right to pay users any income or interest simply for holding coins in their wallets.
A stablecoin in the US is now, by law, simply a digital settlement instrument that must be solidly backed by real assets one to one.
US authorities are against interest, but not against bonuses
A complete ban on earning in the crypto market did not happen. In the draft rules, the regulator wanted to automatically block absolutely any payments on stablecoins, including bonuses from third-party platforms.
But in the final document, this provision was struck out. This means that:
- Crypto exchanges (like Coinbase or Kraken) and fintech services like PayPal can continue to pay rewards on the balance of your stablecoins.
- Instead of a total ban, the authorities are switching to manual (case-by-case) control, with officials checking each exchange program separately, so that exchanges do not pay hidden interest from the coin creators themselves under the guise of “bonuses”.
Traditional American banks lost this round. The big banking lobby demanded until the last moment that any payments on stablecoins be completely eliminated, complaining that, because of the high yields in crypto, ordinary Americans are pulling their money out of classic accounts.
To balance the system, the regulator gave stablecoin creators more freedom in managing their reserves. They are now allowed to invest reserves in long-term and higher-yielding US government bonds, and to withdraw excess profit faster.
The only strict condition: if panic begins and within a day users try to redeem more than 10% of the entire coin supply, the company must urgently report it to the authorities within 24 hours.
The current OCC document is the first part of a large-scale stablecoin reform in the US. The Federal Reserve and the FDIC have yet to present their own packages of rules, but the main card has already been played: mass earning on crypto dollars has been taken out of the line of fire, but placed under strict individual oversight.