Crypto’s CLARITY Act could be a headwind for DeFi tokens, benefit Circle

The latest version of the crypto bill Clarity Act is in the spotlight mostly because of its stablecoin rules. In practice, it may land hardest on decentralized finance (DeFi) and tokens tied to it, according to a report by 10x Research.

At the center of the proposal is a ban on offering yield — or anything resembling it like rewards — on stablecoin balances. That effectively ends the idea of stablecoins as onchain savings products and redefines them as pure payment rails.

“This represents a clear re-centralization of yield,” wrote Markus Thielen, founder of 10xResearch. This is because the proposal pulls back yield into banks, money market funds and regulated wrappers, leaving crypto-native platforms with less room to compete on returns.

That shift could also hit DeFi, despite early hopes it might benefit.

The logic was that if centralized platforms can’t offer yield, users would move onchain, Thielen said.

But that assumes DeFi escapes the same rules. In practice, the Clarity framework is likely to extend into front-end interfaces and token models, especially where fee generation or governance starts to resemble equity, he said.

That puts a wide swath of the sector in focus. Decentralized exchanges like Uniswap (UNI), SUSHI$0.1896 and dYdX (DYDX), as well as lending protocols like Aave AAVE$95.43 and COMP$18.29, could face tighter constraints around how they operate and distribute value, the report argued. The result could be lower volumes, reduced liquidity and weaker token demand.

On the other hand, the proposed regulation is “structurally bullish” for infrastructure players like Circle (CRCL) as it embeds stablecoins deeper into payment rails, Thielen said.