Lawmakers’ latest draft of the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act would sharply limit how stablecoin “yield” programs can work, industry insiders say — banning rewards for simply holding a stablecoin and forbidding structures that resemble interest-bearing bank deposits.
What changed
- A revised section of the bill, disclosed in a closed-door Capitol Hill briefing Monday and announced Friday by Senators Angela Alsobrooks and Thom Tillis, explicitly bars paying yield based solely on stablecoin balances.
- The draft also aims to prevent any rewards program from looking or functioning like a bank deposit, while leaving room for rewards tied to specific user activities. Crucially, however, the mechanics for what counts as an “activity-based” reward and how those programs would operate are not yet defined, according to a person familiar with the language.
Why the tweak
The revision reflects a long-running compromise between crypto firms seeking competitive products and banks that have warned against stablecoins offering bank-like returns. Banking industry lobbyists argued that interest-style yields on crypto balances could undercut traditional deposits and squeeze bank lending — a concern that helped stall earlier progress on the legislation. The new draft attempts to thread that needle by permitting rewards tied to actions (for example, trading, staking or other activity — though the draft does not specify) while prohibiting deposit-style payout structures.
Legislative context
This version of the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act follows similar moves across Congress: a comparable bill passed the House last year, and another iteration advanced through a Senate Agriculture Committee markup. Getting the measure vetted by the Senate Banking Committee would be a major next step toward combining competing drafts and producing a final bill for a Senate vote.
Outstanding fights and broader implications
Stablecoin yield was a headline issue, but not the only sticking point. Regulators and lawmakers still need to settle oversight of decentralized finance (DeFi) — a priority for Democrats who want stronger illicit-finance safeguards — and Democrats are pushing a ban on senior government officials personally profiting from crypto activity, a provision cast as targeting President Donald Trump.
Last year’s passage of the GENIUS Act — the first major U.S. law to govern a slice of the crypto sector — was framed as the opening act in a two-step push that culminates with the Clarity Act. Supporters in the digital-asset community argue that once a comprehensive Clarity Act is finalized and enacted it would remove a major source of regulatory uncertainty, likely unlocking greater institutional participation and spurring developers to build more broadly on U.S. rails.
What to watch next
Observers will be looking for clarifying language on what constitutes acceptable activity-based rewards, how regulators would enforce the bank-deposit prohibition, and how the bill addresses DeFi and enforcement provisions. Those definitions will determine whether popular consumer products — such as interest-like “earn” accounts marketed by exchanges and stablecoin issuers — survive in modified form or are effectively curtailed under the new framework.
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