Overview
- Senator Thom Tillis asked Senate Banking Chair Tim Scott to push the CLARITY Act markup to May, and the committee still has not set a date.
- The sticking point is whether stablecoin issuers or platforms can pay yield on dollar‑pegged tokens, with banks warning of deposit flight and crypto firms favoring rewards tied to activity rather than idle balances.
- The White House backs the narrower approach, and its Council of Economic Advisers estimates a yield ban would lift bank lending only about 0.02% while costing consumers roughly $800 million.
- A Moody’s analyst said stablecoins pose limited near‑term risk to bank deposits, challenging claims that rewards would trigger large outflows from traditional accounts.
- A shrinking Senate calendar and the midterm season could push action into 2027 if a markup slips past late spring, even as Coinbase now supports the bill and prediction markets have turned more bearish on 2026 passage.