The Senate Banking Committee has published a draft of the crypto market infrastructure bill ahead of an expected markup session on 15 January. The bill has adopted the name from the House bill, the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act. A section of the bill outlines how banks can engage with digital assets allowing a very broad range of activities, provided they adhere to legislation that includes safety and soundness rules. Financial holding companies can even potentially engage in proprietary trading.
One of the most anticipated provisions relates to stablecoin interest and rewards and largely delivers what banks asked for: it prevents the payment of interest or rewards solely linked to holding stablecoins, but still leaves many loopholes.
This appears to strike a balance by still allowing for rewards based on activity such as transactions. However, the wording about the types of rewards could permit activities that are somewhat similar to holding stablecoins, such as rewards relating to stablecoin accounts or staking and membership rewards. Plus, the “solely” wording can be easily gamed. For example, make one payment a month to earn 4% on your stablecoin balance.
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