Banks lobbying efforts seek to ‘kill’ CLARITY Act before US Senate election window closes

Dijital varlık piyasalarında kritik bir gelişme söz konusu. The US Senate’s most significant effort to establish a comprehensive federal framework for digital asset markets, the CLARITY Act, is in imminent danger of slipping into May. Amid fierce pressure from traditional financial institutions, Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) is actively pressing Senate Banking Committee leadership to delay advancing the CLARITY Act . The delay turns what was expected to be a breakthrough in late April into a critical test of whether Congress can finalize a broader crypto market-structure bill before the election-year legislative calendar closes entirely.

The stakes for the digital asset sector extend far beyond basic scheduling. The CLARITY Act serves as the Senate’s primary legislative vehicle for setting federal rules governing digital asset markets, aiming to resolve years of jurisdictional infighting over which regulators oversee trading platforms, token issuers, and spot markets. While the US House of Representatives decisively passed its version of the bill by a bipartisan 294-134 margin in July 2025, the Senate has spent months paralyzed by a highly specific, narrow dispute: whether crypto platforms should be legally permitted to offer consumer rewards that resemble interest on stablecoin balances.

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Related Reading CLARITY Act explicitly leaves DeFi rules blank, risking a total retail protection collapse if negotiations fail A January markup is the start of the sausage-making process, not the finish line Sacks claims. Dec 21, 2025 Gino Matos The GENIUS Act and the stablecoin yield loophole The current legislative gridlock traces its roots back to the GENIUS Act . Signed into law on July 18, 2025, the legislation successfully established a baseline federal framework for payment stablecoins, mandating strict one-to-one fiat reserves.

However, the law intentionally left a critical gray area unresolved, failing to decisively settle whether third parties or affiliated platforms could structure products that pass yield-like rewards back to stablecoin holders. That ambiguity has now become the chokepoint for the broader CLARITY Act . US lawmakers are effectively deciding whether stablecoins will be legally fenced in as narrow, yield-free payment instruments, or if crypto platforms will be permitted to build financial products around them that offer consumers economic upside.

Recent data from the Trump administration has further inflamed the debate. On April 8, the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) released a report that directly undercut the traditional banking sector’s primary argument against stablecoin yields . Notably, the banking lobby has long warned that yield-bearing stablecoins would trigger massive capital flight, draining vital deposits from local lenders.

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However, the CEA analysis concluded that eliminating stablecoin yield entirely would increase traditional bank lending by only $2. 1 billion, which is an increase of just 0. Furthermore, the report estimated that imposing such a ban would result in a net welfare cost to consumers of $800 million.

Even more damaging to the banking lobby's narrative, the White House found that community banks would account for only about $500 million of that added lending in a baseline scenario. The administration utilized these figures to argue that a blanket ban on stablecoin yield would do virtually nothing to protect the broader banking system while actively harming consumer returns. Traditional finance holds the line Despite the administration's data, traditional banking trade groups have refused to yield ground .

The American Bankers Association (ABA), alongside regional groups like the North Carolina Bankers Association, is heavily lobbying Congress to adopt a comprehensive prohibition on stablecoin inducements. They demand that these bans apply universally, whether paid directly by a token issuer or indirectly through an affiliated exchange or partner platform. In fact, the ABA recently purchased premium advertising space in Washington publications like Politico.

Blockchain ekosistemindeki bu gelişme, dijital varlık piyasalarını şekillendirmeye devam ediyor. Uzmanlar, konunun yakın vadeli etkilerini mercek altına alıyor.