Skip to Main Content

Weekly Blockchain Blog – October 26, 2026

10/26/2026 | 7 minute read

Posted in Cryptocurrency

In this issue:

New Launches Include Bank Deposit Token on Ethereum; Authentication Solution

By Robert A. Musiala Jr.

A major U.S. bank recently announced that it has launched its “USD-denominated deposit token” on the Layer 1 Ethereum network. According to a press release, the deposit token will be available to the bank’s institutional clients. The press release notes that the bank’s institutional clients “can now move money quickly, easily and securely on Ethereum in addition to Base – the Ethereum Layer 2 blockchain – meaningfully expanding the scale of access to native onchain cash that sits alongside the assets, collateral, and counterparties they transact with already.”

In more crypto payments news, zerohash, an “onchain infrastructure provider,” recently announced the launch of “AUTH by zerohash, a paradigm-shifting onchain authentication and account-linking product.” According to a press release, “AUTH replaces raw addresses with authenticated, user-permissioned accounts” and “lets users link self-custody and custodial accounts directly, transferring onchain assets without needing to use a raw wallet address or making a chain selection.”

For more information, please refer to the following links:

U.S. Payments Companies Announce Stablecoin Integration Initiatives

By John E. Robertson

A leading crypto payments network recently announced a new partnership with a major digital payments company to make crypto and stablecoins spendable across the payments company’s network. According to the press release, the partnership will allow consumers to make crypto and stablecoin payments in-store or online directly from balances held in their third-party wallet apps. Consumers will be able to spend anywhere the company’s payments network is accepted without needing to first cash out their cryptocurrencies or manage cards tied to individual platforms and wallets.

In other news, another major digital payments company announced a new stablecoin risk intelligence service. In a press release, the company emphasized the need for such a service due to the complex, multistep nature of stablecoin transfers, which makes it harder for financial institutions to assess risk across the full payment. The press release goes on to state the service works by analyzing signals throughout the transaction, such as the transaction context, where the funds come from, exposure to restricted parties and scam indicators. According to the press release, the program involves a partnership with Borderless.xyz and Keyrails, startups that support high-value cross-border trade payments and give financial institutions a single connection to licensed stablecoin providers in multiple countries and currencies.

For more information, please refer to the following links:

OCC Publishes Final Rule Implementing GENIUS Act

By Robert A. Musiala Jr.

On Oct. 21, the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) published a final rule to implement the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act. According to an OCC press release, “the final rule establishes requirements for permitted payment stablecoin issuers and foreign payment stablecoin issuers under the OCC’s jurisdiction, as well as certain custody activities conducted by OCC-supervised entities.” The press release notes that the rule “addresses all of the regulations the OCC is required to promulgate under the GENIUS Act other than those related to the Bank Secrecy Act, anti-money laundering, and Office of Foreign Asset Control sanctions, which will be addressed in a separate rulemaking in coordination with the Department of Treasury.” The OCC “will announce in a separate news release when it will begin accepting and processing applications and waiver requests from prospective permitted payment stablecoin issuers,” according to the press release. The final rule is 721 pages and effective on Jan. 18, 2027.

The final rule makes significant modifications to the proposed rule. Some of the more notable changes include revisions in the following areas:

  • Reserve Asset Management. The final rule makes changes to provisions concerning reserve asset management to provide more flexibility to permitted payment stablecoin issuers (PPSIs) while still maintaining core liquidity, diversification and concentration requirements to ensure that PPSIs remain sufficiently reserved and capable of meeting redemption requests in a timely manner.
  • PPSI Activities. The final rule makes changes to provide clarity with respect to a PPSI’s permitted activities, redemption requirements and risk management obligations.
  • OCC Supervision. The final rule includes clarifications concerning the OCC’s supervision of PPSIs, custody, and licensing and registration.
  • Capital Requirements. The final rule makes updates to certain capital and operational backstop requirements that are more detailed than, but consistent with, the proposal.

Additional notable changes from the proposed rule include the following:

  • Yield Provision. The proposed rule includes a “rebuttable presumption” that certain types of PPSI arrangements with “related third parties” would be considered prohibited payments of yield or interest by the PPSI. The final rule notes that “the OCC has determined to eliminate the rebuttable presumption from the final rule.” The final rule states, “The statutory yield prohibition applies to payments of interest or yield solely in connection with the holding, use, or retention of a payment stablecoin …. Specifically, a payment would need to (a) be interest or yield and (b) be made solely in connection with the holding, use, or retention of a payment stablecoin to be within the scope of the prohibition …. Whether a transaction-based payment meets those criteria is a fact-specific inquiry, and the OCC will address the facts presented by particular arrangements as they arise.”
  • Activities (§ 15.10). The final rule adds three new activities to the list of permitted PPSI activities: (1) PPSIs will be allowed to hold as principal nonpayment stablecoin digital assets as necessary to pay certain fees; (2) PPSIs will be allowed to establish a trust arrangement under applicable law for reserve assets, subject to certain conditions; and (3) PPSIs will be allowed to manage foreign exchange risk, subject to certain conditions.
  • Reserve Assets (§ 15.11). The final rule makes multiple changes, including adding a new requirement for PPSIs to “ensure that reserve asset value will continue to equal or exceed outstanding issuance value at all times and that the reserve asset portfolio will be capable of supporting timely redemption under both normal conditions and adverse economic, liquidity, market, and interest rate conditions.”
  • Reserve Requirements (§ 15.11(a)). The final rule makes multiple changes intended “to provide additional flexibility while still including certain core requirements intended to ensure that payment stablecoins remain appropriately reserved at all times and available to meet redemptions.” The changes reflect “a principles-based approach with respect to reserve asset diversification and concentration requirements supplemented by two quantitative requirements designed to ensure a minimum amount of daily liquidity and avoid excessive concentration with respect to a single counterparty.” The changes also include “provisions designed to ensure that [PPSIs] are able to monetize reserve assets in stressed conditions.”
  • Reserve Asset Diversification and Concentration (§ 15.11(c)). The final rule “substantially lessens the quantitative liquidity, diversification, and concentration requirements that apply to [PPSIs] and instead imposes stress testing and buffer requirements in §§ 15.11 and 15.13.”Additionally, the final rule clarifies that “depending on relevant factors … a [PPSI] may need to maintain an amount of reserve assets that exceeds the requirements of § 15.11(c)(2) and the reserve asset value of which exceeds outstanding issuance value.”
  • Custody of Reserve Assets (§ 15.11(d)). The finalrule makes changes “to provide additional clarity and notice to custodians” and does not adopt “a requirement to have a minimum insured deposit amount.”
  • Redemption (§ 15.12). The final rule provides that a PPSI “must provide notice to the OCC through its supervisory office within 24 hours if it receives redemption requests in excess of 10 percent of the outstanding issuance value of any brand of payment stablecoin issued by the [PPSI] in a single 24-hour period.” In this event, the final rule provides that the PPSI “may request that the OCC extend the timeframe for timely redemption” and “the OCC may, in its discretion, grant or deny an extension request or impose discretionary limitations upon timely redemption.”
  • Expected Effects. The final rule states, “The OCC anticipates that the primary effect of the Act and the final rule would be an increase in the aggregate market capitalization of payment stablecoins in response to an increased demand for payment stablecoins due to greater adoption.” The OCC also “anticipates that the final rule will benefit the US government and taxpayers by increasing the demand for short-term Treasury debt securities.”

For more information, please refer to the following links:

AI Platform Reportedly Resolves Ethereum Cryptography Mystery

By Robert A. Musiala Jr.

According to recent reports, a well-known artificial intelligence (AI) company recently used its popular AI platform to help “reconstruct the public seed behind P-256, a NIST-standardized cryptographic curve supported for Ethereum passkey signing.” The company reportedly said the finding makes deliberate backdoors – which have long been subject to speculation regarding potential backdoors inserted by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) – less plausible. The company also noted the finding does not identify any new attack or curve weakness or otherwise require any user action.

For more information, please refer to the following links:

DOJ Action Targets Crypto Money Laundering Network

By Robert A. Musiala Jr.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) recently announced charges against a defendant “in connection with schemes to launder hundreds of millions of dollars, including narcotics sale [p]roceeds, and import nine kilograms of cocaine into the United States.” According to a DOJ press release, the defendant “was a Colombia-based cryptocurrency broker” and “operated a sophisticated international scheme to utilize cryptocurrency, a network of shell companies in the U.S. and Colombia, and numerous crypto accounts, to exploit the U.S. financial system to launder the proceeds of hundreds of millions of dollars in drug money and other criminal proceeds.” The press release notes that between May and November 2023, the defendant worked with others “to launder a total of approximately $14.5 million Tether derived from the proceeds of drug trafficking.”

For more information, please refer to the following link: