- The provisions on stablecoin yields remain a hotly contested issue in the draft crypto market structure bill.
- SEC Chair Atkins is optimistic that President Trump will sign the legislation into law this year.
Senator Tim Scott’s Senate Banking Committee is making significant progress in preparing the crypto market structure bill ahead of its scheduled markup on Thursday. This came despite Senator John Boozman’s Agricultural Committee postponing the markup of its version in the last week of January.
Debate on Stablecoin Yields Intensifies
According to Eleanor Terrett, host of Crypto In America and former journalist at Fox Business, the matter on stablecoin yields was the “thorniest issue” in the Senate Banking Committee’s version of the bill. This allows US dollar-pegged digital assets to earn interest through decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols, which have worried legacy banks and financial institutions about their potential to compete with traditional deposits.
Faryar Shirzad, Chief Policy Officer at Coinbase, urged the legislature to address the subject of stablecoin yields in the ongoing crypto market structure bill. He warned that maintaining restrictions on these could give the digital yuan or e-CNY Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) of the People’s Bank of China (PBC) an edge, as it has started paying interest to holders since January 1, 2026.
The latest draft of the bill retains the prohibition on companies paying interest solely for holding stablecoin balances. Users can only gain rewards if the stablecoins are tied to opening an account or activities like making transactions, staking, providing liquidity, putting collateral, or participating in network governance.
However, Terrett considers the provisions on stablecoin yields unclear and in favor of the opposing big banks. She opined that senators may still introduce several revisions to this text before the Thursday markup.
SEC Bullish on Passage of Crypto Market Structure Legislation Into Law
Paul Atkins, the pro-crypto chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), views the market structure legislation as a massive upgrade for the 21st-century financial markets. In addition to clarifying the jurisdictional split between the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), he said the rules would bring the digital asset market out of the gray zone and future-proof it against “rogue regulators.”
Atkins expects President Donald Trump to sign the bipartisan legislation into law “in the coming months.” Moreover, he underscored that its success would bring the US closer to the president’s goal of making the nation the “crypto capital of the world.”
Interestingly, the SEC chair also revealed that Trump has already created a “financial services regulatory dream team,” which includes him and his CFTC counterpart, Michael Selig. The move aims to ensure smooth implementation of the law and prevent regulatory bottlenecks.
