U.S. crypto exchanges that have long been giving people rewards for usings stablecoins will have to get the agency to sign off on those existing programs, according to the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the first federal banking regulator to issue a final rule under the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act.

The OCC, which oversees U.S. national banks and trusts that will play a central role in the issuance of stablecoins under the law, issued a final rule on Wednesday to establish the regulations under which the firms that issue the dollar-based tokens will operate — including in their third-party relationships with the exchanges on which their stablecoins change hands.

The agency — an independent bureau of the Treasury Department — has declined to offer examples or illustrations of what type of rewards operations may run afoul of the GENIUS Act, which declared that payments to customers made "solely in connection with the holding, use, or retention of such payment stablecoin" won't be allowed. The industry, which won't get any safe harbors for existing programs, will just have to test the agency's case-by-case oversight to get a better sense of the rule, which is set to go live on January 18.

" However, the agency did suggest that the word "solely" in the prohibition is carrying a lot of weight, and that a reward that "might be made, at least in part, for other reasons" would fall outside the ban in the GENIUS Act.

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