US CLARITY Act Stalls as Banks Resist Stablecoin Reward Mechanisms

The US cryptocurrency regulatory legislative process has encountered a key obstacle, with the core dispute focusing on stablecoin reward mechanisms. According to a proposal by the White House, crypto companies plan to issue 3% to 4% yield rewards to users to promote the application of stablecoins in digital payment scenarios. However, traditional financial institutions strongly oppose this, worrying that such incentives will lead to a large-scale outflow of funds from bank deposits, with potential losses estimated at $500 billion, thereby weakening banks' lending capacity and liquidity system.

In an attempt to compromise, the White House proposed a restrictive plan: rewards would only be allowed in peer-to-peer payment scenarios, and interest would be prohibited on stablecoins held idle in wallets for extended periods. Although most crypto companies accepted this compromise, banks still insisted on a complete ban on reward mechanisms, leading to a deadlock in legislative negotiations.

Currently, the market's attention is turning to the roundtable conference hosted by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on April 16. This conference will focus on how to establish a clear regulatory framework for crypto assets while protecting investors' rights, and clarify the boundaries between security-like digital assets and commodity-like assets—the former is regulated by the SEC, and the latter is under the jurisdiction of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). If passed, the bill is expected to provide unprecedented legal certainty for the US crypto industry. Given the current deep divisions among all parties, the industry generally predicts that the CLARITY Act may be delayed until 2026 before it is likely to pass, becoming an important milestone in the US building its crypto regulatory system.