Overview
- Following Wednesday’s Wall Street Journal op-ed, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent urged the Senate to act quickly on the CLARITY Act, saying floor time is running short.
- The bill would set clear federal rules for digital assets by defining which tokens are securities or commodities, splitting oversight between the SEC and CFTC, creating registration paths for trading platforms, and strengthening anti-money-laundering controls.
- The main holdup is a fight over whether stablecoin issuers or platforms can pay interest to holders, with banks pushing to block yields and crypto firms arguing they are key to adoption.
- White House economists said banning stablecoin yields would raise total bank lending by about 0.02% while costing consumers roughly $800 million a year in lost returns, undercutting banks’ central argument.
- Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said this week he supports passing the bill after opposing it in January, and Senate Banking leaders are preparing a committee vote before the end of April.