The stablecoin yield clash that won’t go away has banks, crypto battling over tradition

The battle is likely to be finished one way or another next month, when the Clarity Act gets its final three weeks of Senate action before the midterm elections, and the stakes will test the old-guard strength of bank lobbyists against the high-spending political powers of crypto advocates.

The banks have made an appeal that what they’re doing represents the public good: Their business model requires that people keep their money in deposits, which don’t pay enough interest to compete with what crypto firms would pay in stablecoin yield, if given the chance. People can’t be allowed to make money off their holdings of stablecoins, the banks contend, because if customers abandon low-interest bank deposits, the institutions won’t be able to reuse their money to support bank lending.

One of their standard bearers, JPMorgan Chase & Co. CEO Jamie Dimon, says banks aren’t being treated fairly, contending that stablecoins don’t carry the same government scrutiny, regulations and requirements to track the identity of users.

“It should be fair and equal, period,” Dimon, whose bank is the largest in the U.S., said in a June Fox Business interview, saying the Clarity Act had “almost no legal protections” to prevent money laundering and other illicit finance.