Stablecoin Rule Delay

Congress is delaying work on the CLARITY Act’s stablecoin provisions as lawmakers negotiate whether dollar-linked tokens can offer yield-like rewards. (theblock.co) Sen. Thom Tillis said the latest stablecoin-yield text would likely not be released last week because he wanted clarity on the timing of the Senate Banking Committee markup first. The Block, citing Politico and a source familiar with the talks, reported the draft now points to a markup slipping into May. (theblock.co) The fight is over whether a stablecoin issuer, exchange, or affiliate can pay users for holding tokens that are supposed to trade at a fixed $1 value. CoinDesk reported in March that draft language would bar rewards on idle balances, a restriction that crypto firms said would shut down one of the product’s main selling points. (coindesk.com) Banks and bank trade groups have pressed Congress and regulators to read the ban broadly, arguing that interest-like rewards on stablecoins could pull deposits out of insured banks. American Banker reported that banks, state regulator groups, and consumer advocates urged Treasury to block not just direct interest payments by issuers but also affiliate-run rewards programs. (americanbanker.com) Crypto advocates have argued the opposite in recent weeks. CoinDesk reported on April 8 that a White House economic study downplayed the deposit risk from stablecoin yield, and on April 13 that Patrick Witt, the White House’s crypto policy adviser, said a compromise on yield should hold as the Senate tries to move the bill. (coindesk.com 1) (coindesk.com 2) At the same time, Treasury has started writing the compliance rules that would apply if the stablecoin framework becomes law. Treasury said in an April 8 notice that the GENIUS Act directs it to treat permitted payment stablecoin issuers as financial institutions under the Bank Secrecy Act and to impose anti-money-laundering obligations on them. (home.treasury.gov) That proposed rule would require issuers to maintain written anti-money-laundering and countering-the-financing-of-terrorism programs and sanctions compliance systems. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said the proposal would require permitted issuers to adopt and maintain an effective sanctions compliance program. (home.treasury.gov) (ofac.treasury.gov) The Senate’s GENIUS Act, introduced on May 1, 2025, set up the broader federal framework for payment stablecoins, including a split between federal oversight and state oversight for issuers with no more than $10 billion outstanding. Congress’s research arm said the bill would also give stablecoin holders priority in bankruptcy and limit how reserve assets can be used. (congress.gov 1) (congress.gov 2) The CLARITY Act is the separate market-structure bill that would define how digital assets are regulated more broadly, and its stablecoin section has become a bottleneck for the Senate calendar. CoinDesk reported on April 15 that JPMorgan analysts saw negotiations nearing a deal, but a markup pushed into May would leave less time for committee approval and floor action. (congress.gov) (coindesk.com) For now, the Senate is trying to settle a narrow question with broad consequences: whether a digital dollar can pay like a savings product without being treated like one. (coindesk.com)