US regulators allow crypto exchanges to pay interest-like rewards

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has announced new rules allowing cryptocurrency exchanges to pass along earnings from stablecoins to customers as interest-like rewards. These regulations are part of the implementation of the GENIUS Act, which aims to codify rules for stablecoin issuers.

Under the new guidelines, stablecoin issuers such as Circle remain prohibited from paying interest directly to holders. However, exchanges like Coinbase and Robinhood may distribute earnings from the underlying assets—typically bank deposits and U.S. Treasuries—to their customers on a “case-by-case basis.”

The decision follows opposition from banking groups, which argued that high-yield crypto rewards could drain trillions of dollars in deposits from the traditional banking system. For comparison, while the average traditional savings account yield sits at approximately 0.38%, some crypto platforms have offered yields as high as 3.5% on stablecoin balances.