The first final rule issued by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency under the GENIUS Act offers no safe harbor for existing stablecoin rewards programs: trading platforms must seek approval, compliance is assessed on a case-by-case basis, and the rule takes effect on January 18. The agency said, according to CoinDesk, that rewards offered for reasons at least partly beyond holding, using, or retaining a payment stablecoin may not fall under the Act’s yield ban. The rule also sets standards for issuance and custody in the United States and adopts principles-based reserve diversification requirements, while other agencies continue drafting their own rules.#GoinDesk