The revised text of the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act explicitly bans yields on plain stablecoin balances, a provision the crypto industry considers overly restrictive.
The U.S. crypto industry got its first look on Monday at the revised text of the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act during a closed-door session on Capitol Hill in Washington. The new language on stablecoin yields, announced Friday by Senators Angela Alsobrooks and Thom Tillis, explicitly prohibits yield payments for simply holding stablecoins.
According to a source familiar with the current draft, the industry’s initial reaction was that the language governing permitted yields is overly narrow and unclear. The text would ban any approach that makes a yield program equivalent, in any way, to an interest-bearing bank deposit. Alternative activities that could potentially be permitted would also be subject to further restrictions, and the mechanisms for determining returns based on user activity remain uncertain.
The compromise reached between the senators stems from pressure by the banking sector, which had insisted that stablecoin yields should not resemble bank deposit interest in any way. Banks had argued that a competing product could penalize the banking industry and squeeze lending activity. As a result, the new version allows reward programs tied to user activity on stablecoins, but not to plain balances held.
The move to the Senate Banking Committee represents a crucial step toward advancing the legislation to a stage where lawmakers can prepare a final combined version to be put to a full Senate vote. A similar version of the Clarity Act had already passed the House of Representatives last year, and another version had cleared a markup hearing in the Senate Agriculture Committee. The stablecoin yield issue had stalled the legislation’s progress for some time, but it is not the only unresolved matter.
Several other issues remain open: the final approach to overseeing decentralized finance (DeFi) is still a concern among Democrats, who want to ensure protections against illicit financing. Democrats have also pushed for the inclusion of a ban preventing senior government officials from personally profiting from the crypto sector, a provision aimed directly at President Donald Trump.
