Comptroller: OCC Expects to Finalize Stablecoin Rule by November

Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan V. Gould said the OCC expects to issue a final rule implementing the GENIUS Act by November 2026.

Speaking during a fireside chat at the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium in Jackson Hole, Mr. Gould said the agency began drafting the implementation rules before President Trump signed the bill into law. November is the OCC's own target, not a statutory one: the GENIUS Act takes effect the earlier of 18 months after its July 18, 2025, enactment or 120 days after the primary federal payment stablecoin regulators issue final rules implementing it. The OCC's proposed rule has been out since March 2026.

Mr. Gould described the emergence of payment stablecoins as the birth of a new industry and framed the OCC's role as a return to its founding mission in the 1860s, when the agency was created to ensure that reserve assets backing national bank notes were of the same level of quality.

He also pointed to a sharp increase in de novo charter activity, saying the OCC has received 40 applications for new bank charters over roughly the last 18 months (see previous coverage), 23 of them involving some form of digital asset activity in their business plans, which he called an eightfold increase from the four years of the Biden administration. Integrating payment stablecoins into business plans, he said, is becoming ordinary course among applicants in the pipeline. Mr. Gould also defended the approvals, saying at the symposium that his job is not about incumbent protection but about the integrity of the banking system as a whole.