The White House is now driving stablecoin legislation talks directly, shifting away from the industry-led format of prior meetings and bringing draft text to the table that attempts to bridge the gap between crypto firms and banks.
According to sources familiar with today’s closed-door session, Thursday’s meeting at the White House Crypto Council was smaller and more focused than last week’s session.
Former Fox Business reporter Eleanor Terrett reported that attendees included representatives from Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN), Ripple (CRYPTO: XRP), and Andreessen Horowitz, alongside trade groups the Blockchain Association and the Crypto Council for Innovation.
No individual bank representatives attended — the banking industry was represented through the American Bankers Association (ABA), the Bank Policy Institute, and the Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA).
White House Crypto Council Executive Director Bo Hines’ deputy Patrick Witt brought draft legislative text that served as the central focus of conversation, rather than letting attendees steer the agenda.
The Yield Fight: What’s In, What’s Out
The draft language effectively kills one of crypto’s biggest policy goals — earning yield on idle stablecoin balances is off the table.
The debate has now narrowed to whether issuers can offer rewards tied to specific user activities, a much smaller concession.
The draft also acknowledged bank concerns raised in last week’s “Yield and Interest Prohibitions Principles” document, while making clear that any restrictions on rewards would be narrow in scope.
On the enforcement side, banks scored a win.
The proposed anti-evasion language would give the SEC, Treasury, and the CFTC authority to enforce the yield ban, with civil monetary penalties of $500,000 per violation, per day — a provision bank-side sources described as “encouraging.”
The Real Fight: Competition, Not Deposit Flight
One crypto-side attendee offered a blunt read of the banking lobby’s motivations: the pushback on stablecoin yield stems more from competitive pressure than genuine fears of deposit flight, which had been the original framing.
Banks, however, are still pushing to include a deposit outflow study in the final bill — one that would examine the growth of payment stablecoins and their potential impact on traditional bank deposits.
Bank trade groups will now brief their members on today’s discussions and gauge appetite for compromise on activity-linked stablecoin rewards.
Sources say an end-of-month deadline for a deal is realistic, with talks set to continue in the coming days.
Public statements from both sides were once again described as “productive” and “constructive” — Washington’s favorite way of saying nothing is finalized but nobody walked out.
Image: Shutterstock
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