OCC stablecoin yield ban proposal, ETH plan, tokenized Treasurys
Today’s crypto developments include a 376-page proposal from the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to implement the GENIUS Act and prohibit yield on payment stablecoins, new details from Vitalik Buterin on a four-year roadmap to speed up and harden Ethereum against quantum attacks, and a more than $1 billion increase in tokenized US Treasurys since Jan. 1, 2026.
OCC proposes GENIUS Act rules to bar yield on payment stablecoins, potentially enabling CLARITY to advance
The OCC on Wednesday issued a 376-page proposed rule to implement the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act, aiming to resolve the ongoing debate over yield on payment stablecoins. The proposal is open for public comment for 60 days from publication.
Under the draft rule, supervised entities would be prohibited from paying any interest or yield—whether in cash, tokens, or other forms—“solely in connection with the holding, use, or retention” of a payment stablecoin, consistent with section 4(a)(11) of the GENIUS Act.
Thania Charmani, a partner at Winston & Strawn, wrote on X that the OCC seeks to “resolve the debate on stablecoin yield through rulemaking,” which could allow the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act of 2025 (CLARITY) to “proceed without that provision.”
GENIUS, enacted in July 2025, established a federal regime for payment stablecoins and limited US issuance to permitted issuers, including bank subsidiaries, new federal stablecoin issuers, and certain large state-regulated firms.
The OCC’s proposal translates the statute into operational requirements, setting strict boundaries on how GENIUS-regulated issuers can structure the economics of their stablecoins.
It also introduces a rebuttable presumption of noncompliance if an issuer arranges to pay yield to an affiliate or a “related third party” and that entity subsequently pays yield to holders of the issuer’s payment stablecoin.
OCC Requests Comments on Proposal to Implement GENIUS Act. Source: OCC
Buterin outlines four-year plan for faster, quantum-resistant Ethereum
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin on Thursday elaborated on a newly released roadmap, detailing plans to significantly accelerate block production and transaction confirmations.
The roadmap, dubbed the “Strawmap” and published by the Ethereum Foundation’s Protocol team, proposes reducing slot times—the interval to produce new blocks—and upgrading how nodes communicate across the network.
Planned changes to finality aim to cut the current ~16-minute confirmation window to a target between 6 and 16 seconds by replacing the existing complex confirmation mechanism with a simpler design that is also resistant to quantum attacks.
Buterin described the roadmap as a “very invasive set of changes” and said the plan is to bundle the largest steps with a switch in cryptography, specifically to post-quantum hash-based signatures.
Ethereum Strawmap depicts a four-year roadmap. Source: Ethereum Foundation
Tokenized US Treasurys up by over $1 billion since start of 2026
The market for tokenized US Treasurys has grown by more than $1 billion since Jan. 1, 2026, despite macroeconomic uncertainty and concerns about rising US federal debt.
Tokenized US Treasurys are real-world assets (RWAs) that represent government debt instruments issued onchain via tokens.
According to RWA.xyz, market capitalization has increased to more than $10.8 billion from $8.9 billion on Jan. 1.
Growth has continued despite a broader crypto market downturn that began in October 2025, rising US government debt levels, and investor uncertainty about the 2026 macro outlook.
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