High-yield Bonds Fuel AI and Data Center Expansion
The AI and data center boom, partly driven by Bitcoin miners, is increasingly being financed through high-yield bond issuance. According to TheEnergyMag’s latest newsletter, companies tied to AI data center development have raised about $33 billion in long-term senior notes over the past 12 months, excluding convertible debt. The interest rate spread is notable: while regulated utilities and traditional energy companies generally borrow at 4% to 5%, AI- and crypto-linked issuers pay closer to 7% to 9%. This underscores how lenders are pricing both risk and opportunity in the sector.
nn
OCC Proposes Rules to Implement GENIUS Act, Clearing Path for CLARITY
The US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has dropped a 376-page proposal to implement the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act. The proposal is open to public comment for 60 days from Wednesday’s publication date, setting out detailed rules for permitted payment stablecoin issuers under the OCC’s jurisdiction. Supervised entities would be barred from paying any form of interest or yield, whether in cash, tokens, or other consideration, “solely in connection with the holding, use, or retention” of a payment stablecoin.
nn
The GENIUS Act, enacted in July 2025, created a federal framework for payment stablecoins and restricted issuance in the US to licensed permitted issuers such as bank subsidiaries, new federal stablecoin issuers, and certain large state-regulated firms. The proposal goes a step further, adding a rebuttable presumption that an issuer is violating the ban on paying yield if it has an arrangement to pay yield to an affiliate or “related third party” and that entity then pays yield to holders of the issuer’s payment stablecoin.
