[Note: On May 4, 2026, we published Solari’s comments submitted to Treasury’s OCC concerning GENIUS Act implementation. On June 15, we added Solari’s comments submitted to FinCEN and OFAC, also related to GENIUS Act implementation.]
On May 1, 2026, Catherine, as president of Solari, Inc., submitted comments in response to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s (OCC’s) Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) related to “Implementing the GENIUS Act for the Issuance of Stablecoins by Entities Subject to the Jurisdiction of the [OCC].”
The comments express four major concerns about the current version of the Proposed Rule:
- It does not adequately protect consumers.
- It fails to preserve financial privacy and liquidity.
- It does not safeguard local banking institutions from loss of deposits that fund bank credit to small businesses, farms, and individuals.
- It does not prevent the deployment of programmable money as a coercive surveillance and social control infrastructure.
The comments also offer six specific measures that the OCC can take to strengthen the Proposed Rule, stating that the rule must:
- Affirmatively preserve cash and non-programmable payment options as legally protected alternatives.
- Protect the credit-granting capacity of community and local banks and prohibit anticompetitive incentive structures.
- Guarantee consumer access to non-programmable digital and cash payment options.
- Close the “publicly available information” loophole and require privacy-protective technology.
- Prohibit government-mandated and issuer-implemented freezes, expirations, and spending restrictions without due process.
- Prohibit transaction denial based on protected characteristics, lawful activity, and viewpoint.
Read the May 1 comments letter HERE.
Update on June 15, 2026:
On June 9, 2026, Solari submitted comments in response to the joint NPRM issued on April 8, 2026 by the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) regarding implementation of GENIUS Act provisions.
Treasury’s proposed rule would establish a new Anti-Money Laundering/Countering the Financing of Terrorism program framework and economic sanctions compliance program requirements for permitted payment stablecoin issuers (PPSIs).
In its comments, Solari urges FinCEN and OFAC to amend the proposed rule to address three critical concerns and recommendations, recognizing that “the regulatory framework that Treasury establishes for PPSIs … will shape the architecture of the U.S. payments system and the rights of Americans within it for decades to come.” The three concerns/recommendations are as follows:
- The technical capability to block, freeze, and reject transactions must be subject to robust due process protections and prohibition of viewpoint-based discrimination.
- The “publicly available information” characterization of blockchain transaction data creates serious financial privacy risks that the proposed rule fails to address.
- The proposed rule should address the interaction between Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) obligations and the Right to Financial Privacy Act and other consumer financial privacy protections.
Read the June 9 comments letter HERE.
