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Coinbase Warns U.S. Could Lose Ground as China’s Digital Yuan Starts Paying Interest

The company urges lawmakers to permit stablecoin reward programs to keep dollar-pegged tokens competitive against an interest-bearing CBDC.

Overview

  • Chinese commercial banks began paying interest on the Digital Yuan on Jan. 1, with yields tied to users’ e‑CNY balances.
  • Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong says banning rewards on stablecoins would weaken U.S. competitiveness in programmable payments.
  • Senate Banking Committee work on a market-structure bill includes debate over limiting stablecoin yields, with Democrats warning of potential deposit shifts from community banks.
  • Coinbase points to studies from Charles River Associates and Cornell that find little evidence stablecoin rewards reduce community bank deposits or lending capacity.
  • Separately, World Liberty Financial applied for a national banking license to issue and custody a dollar-pegged stablecoin called USD1.