1 month ago
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Bank CEOs and crypto bosses are heading to the White House on Monday to sort out a growing fight over stablecoin laws, according to a report from Reuters.
The meeting is being put together by President Donald Trump’s crypto council, and it’s expected to get heated.
The issue on the table is whether crypto companies should be allowed to give people interest or rewards when they hold digital dollars called stablecoins.
Three people close to the talks say trade group leaders and top names from both sectors will be in the room. The White House has yet to say anything publicly.
But this sit-down shows Trump’s team wants to finally get this stuck bill passed and avoid a bigger mess later.
The bill is called the Clarity Act. The House already passed its version last July. The Senate’s been sitting on it. The Banking Committee was supposed to vote on it earlier this month, but pushed it back. Lawmakers didn’t like how the bill handled interest payments from crypto firms. Neither did banks.
Banks and crypto firms battle over stablecoin interest payouts
Crypto companies say offering interest is a key part of their business. Without it, they say it’s harder to get new users. They argue it’s unfair to block them from offering rewards just because they’re not banks. “It’s anti-competitive,” one of the firms told lawmakers in recent briefings.
Banks see it a different way. They rely on deposits to survive. That’s their main funding source. If users leave them for higher interest from crypto platforms, that’s a serious risk. Bank lobbyists told Congress this could shake the whole system.
There’s already data backing that fear. A report from Standard Chartered this week said stablecoins might drain $500 billion from U.S. banks by the end of 2028. That number caught attention on Capitol Hill. Some Senators are now asking whether this law opens the door to exactly that kind of cash drain.
Last year’s stablecoin law banned the token issuers from paying out interest. But it didn’t clearly stop others (like exchanges) from doing it instead. Banks are now warning that crypto apps could step into the gap and start paying yield, giving them a huge edge. That’s what this meeting is trying to fix.
Bitcoin stalls as ETF analysts tell traders to stay calm
As the legal drama drags on, Bitcoin is trading flat. The price is currently around $89,500, while Ethereum is holding around $3,000, up 2% from the day before. Both coins had recently backed off their highs after Trump reignited talk of buying Greenland.
ETF expert Eric Balchunas isn’t worried. Posting on X, he told traders to stop panicking. “People forget where we came from,” he said.
Back in 2022, Bitcoin was down at $15,800. Since then, it’s blown past every other major asset; gold, silver, even tech stocks.
Once the spot Bitcoin ETFs got the greenlight in early 2024, the price jumped 430%. Gold only went up 177%. Silver rose 350%. The tech-heavy QQQ index did 140%. In raw numbers, crypto crushed them all.
Eric said this slow price action isn’t a failure. He called it a “coma”, where the market just waits for the big funds to come in.
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