- US Banks Back Crypto Regulation but Demand Stablecoin Yield Curbs After CLARITY Act Vote
America’s largest banking trade groups have reaffirmed support for a federal regulatory framework for digital assets while urging Congress to tighten restrictions on stablecoin yield, after the US Senate failed to advance the Digital Asset Market CLARITY Act in a closely watched procedural vote.
The Senate voted 49-50 on Tuesday against invoking cloture on the motion to proceed with the legislation, falling short of the 60 votes required to advance the bill and leaving one of Washington’s most significant attempts to establish comprehensive rules for the cryptocurrency market stalled.
Following the vote, the Independent Community Bankers of America, American Bankers Association, Association of Military Banks of America, Bank Policy Institute, Consumer Bankers Association, Financial Services Forum, Mid-Size Bank Coalition of America and National Bankers Association said they continued to support congressional efforts to establish durable rules for digital assets.
“The nation’s banks continue to support creating a strong, durable regulatory framework for digital assets that will set the course for U.S. global leadership for decades to come,” the groups said in a joint statement.
But they added that lawmakers should make targeted changes to the treatment of stablecoin yield to protect the deposit-funded lending model on which much of traditional banking depends.
“We believe Congress can accomplish that goal while protecting the bank lending that drives economic growth,” the groups said. “As lawmakers consider next steps, we encourage them to adopt targeted changes to stablecoin yield policy.”
The intervention highlights one of the central financial-policy disputes surrounding the CLARITY Act: whether dollar-backed stablecoins should remain primarily payment instruments or be allowed to offer rewards that make them increasingly competitive with interest-bearing bank deposits.
Banks argue that if stablecoin holders can receive yield or economically equivalent rewards, households and businesses could shift significant amounts of money away from bank deposits and into digital assets.
Deposits provide banks with a relatively stable source of funding for mortgages, agricultural credit, small-business finance and consumer lending. Banking associations therefore argue that large-scale deposit migration could eventually constrain credit availability in the wider economy.
The industry has been lobbying senators for explicit language preventing stablecoins and related platforms from offering payments that effectively function as deposit interest.
Nearly 80 state banking associations joined the ABA and ICBA earlier this month in calling for changes to the legislation, arguing that existing language could allow digital-asset service providers to structure incentives around restrictions on stablecoin interest.
The debate intensified after Senate Republicans released revised CLARITY Act language ahead of Tuesday’s vote.
The proposal included a mechanism described by banking groups as a deposit-flight “circuit breaker”. Under the framework, the Treasury Secretary would assess whether stablecoin activity had caused substantial harm to community banks, with regulators subsequently empowered to act.
Banking associations said that approach did not go far enough. They argued that a safeguard triggered only after significant deposits had already left regulated banks would address the problem too late and called instead for clearer upfront restrictions on rewards that operate like interest payments.
The disagreement illustrates the challenge facing lawmakers attempting to build a digital-asset framework that encourages financial innovation without unintentionally changing the funding structure of the traditional banking system.
Crypto companies and advocates have pushed for clearer federal rules governing the classification, trading and oversight of digital assets, arguing that regulatory uncertainty has complicated investment and innovation in the US market.
The CLARITY Act is designed to establish clearer boundaries around digital assets and the agencies responsible for supervising different parts of the market. Its supporters have argued that a more predictable framework could strengthen US competitiveness in digital finance.
The legislation has nevertheless encountered disagreements extending beyond stablecoins. Some senators raised concerns around ethics safeguards, money laundering and financial stability, while supporters of the revised bill said they had incorporated numerous changes during negotiations in an attempt to broaden support.
Tuesday’s failed cloture vote means those disagreements remain unresolved. For banks, however, the stablecoin question is particularly consequential because it goes directly to their core economic function.
The American Bankers Association says the US banking industry holds about US$20.7 trillion in deposits and extends approximately US$13.9 trillion in loans. Its argument is that deposits should not be viewed simply as savings balances: they are also the funding base through which banks extend credit to households and businesses.
The concern is therefore less about whether stablecoins should exist than about how closely they should be allowed to replicate the economics of deposit accounts.
Banking groups say they support payment stablecoins and responsible digital-asset innovation but want a clear distinction maintained between transactional digital dollars and products offering returns for holding balances.
Their position has been that stablecoins designed primarily for payments should compete on speed, convenience and transaction functionality rather than through yield structures that could turn them into substitutes for deposits.
That view is contested by parts of the digital-asset industry, which have argued for flexibility around legitimate rewards programmes and warned against regulations that could restrict competition or protect incumbent financial institutions from new technology.
The policy challenge is therefore to determine where ordinary payment incentives end and deposit-like yield begins.
The failed Senate vote does not settle that question. Instead, it leaves stablecoin policy as one of the issues lawmakers would have to revisit if negotiations over digital-asset market structure resume.
The banking groups’ statement suggests they intend to remain engaged rather than seek to block legislation outright.
“We stand ready to work with all stakeholders to achieve this important goal,” they said.
For Congress, the next stage will require balancing two objectives that are increasingly intertwined: establishing rules capable of supporting a competitive US digital-asset market while determining how far stablecoins should be allowed to compete with the deposit products that finance conventional bank lending.
That distinction could ultimately prove more consequential than the procedural defeat itself. The CLARITY Act may have stalled in the Senate, but the argument over whether digital dollars should behave like payment instruments or interest-bearing savings products is likely to remain central to the next attempt at US crypto regulation.
