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BlackRock Urges OCC to Drop Tokenized Reserve Cap in GENIUS Act Letter

BlackRock asked the OCC to remove proposed limits on tokenized reserve assets under draft GENIUS Act rules, arguing risk should be assessed by credit quality, duration, and liquidity rather than distributed-ledger use.

Fact Check
The claim is comprehensively supported by multiple independent, high-quality sources. The Block's detailed article (citing the actual comment letter filed on the official OCC rulemaking docket OCC-2025-0372) confirms every element of the claim: BlackRock submitted a comment letter to the OCC opposing proposed limits on tokenized reserve assets under draft GENIUS Act rules, and explicitly argued that risk should be assessed by credit quality, duration, and liquidity rather than distributed-ledger use. The government docket on regulations.gov confirms the rulemaking context. crypto.news provides independent corroboration. Multiple X posts from credible accounts (@TheBlockCo, @coinbureau) further corroborate the story. No conflicting evidence was found. The only minor caveat is that the primary source document (the actual BlackRock letter) was not directly fetched, but the docket's existence is confirmed and The Block's reporting is detailed and specific enough to establish very high confidence.
Summary

BlackRock urged the OCC to remove a proposed 20% cap on tokenized reserve assets in draft rules tied to the GENIUS Act, saying reserve risk should be assessed based on credit quality, duration, and liquidity rather than whether assets are recorded on distributed ledgers. The firm also asked the regulator to clarify whether Treasury ETF reserves qualify under Section 4. The letter adds specific detail to BlackRock’s earlier push for broader reserve eligibility and more flexible treatment of tokenized assets in the developing regulatory framework.

Terms & Concepts
  • Tokenized reserve assets: Reserve assets represented in digital form on blockchain or similar systems while remaining backed by underlying financial instruments.
  • GENIUS Act: A proposed legislative and regulatory framework referenced in the source for governing digital asset or payment-token reserve structures.
  • Distributed ledgers: Shared digital record-keeping systems, often associated with blockchain networks, used to track ownership and transfers of assets.