The OCC's first final rule under the GENIUS Act gives existing stablecoin rewards programs no safe harbor: exchanges must seek approval, with compliance assessed case by case, and the rule takes effect January 18. The agency said rewards made at least partly for reasons beyond holding, using or retaining a payment stablecoin may fall outside the law's yield ban, according to CoinDesk. The rule also sets U.S. issuance and custody standards and adopts principles-based reserve diversification requirements, while other agencies continue developing their own rules.