BlackRock Calls on U.S. OCC to Abandon Idea of Setting Cap on Tokenized Reserves

BlockBeats News, May 3rd. BlackRock submitted a comment letter to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), expressing opposition to several reserve asset restrictions proposed by the agency in implementing the draft rules under the GENIUS Act. This 17-page response was submitted on the last day of the OCC's 60-day comment period. The consultation period began on March 2 when the draft was published in the Federal Register. The regulatory agency posed over 200 questions covering various aspects such as reserve composition, capital requirements, custody, and income prohibition.

BlackRock's comments mainly focus on the rules regarding "Permitted Payment Stablecoin Issuers" (PPSI). These entities were authorized to issue stablecoins as federal chartered entities last July after a law was signed by Trump. The key appeal is: BlackRock urges the OCC not to set a quantity limit on tokenized reserve assets. Previously, the regulatory agency had suggested a possible 20% limit. BlackRock believes that such restrictions are "irrelevant" to the OCC's regulatory goals and points out that the risk level depends on the asset's credit quality, duration, and liquidity, "rather than whether the asset is held or transferred in a distributed ledger form."

This stance is closely related to BlackRock's positioning in the tokenization field. Its BUIDL Fund is one of the largest-scale tokenized U.S. Treasury bond products, with assets under management close to $2.6 billion, providing over 90% reserve support for Ethena's USDtb and Jupiter's JupUSD based on Solana, according to RWA.xyz data. Meanwhile, Circle's USYC, with around $2.9 billion in assets under management, currently leads the industry.