The latest draft of the CLARITY Act: prohibits gains solely from holding stablecoins

According to CoinDesk, crypto industry practitioners saw for the first time the latest provisions on stablecoin gains in the revised version of the Senate Digital Asset Markets Clarity Act at a closed-door review meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington on Monday, with the initial impression that the relevant language was too narrow and unclear.<br /> The new terms were announced last Friday by Senators Angela Alsobrooks and Tom Tillis. According to a person familiar with the current draft, the new provisions will ban gains solely from holding stablecoins, restrict any practices that equate the program with bank deposits, and place further restrictions on other activities that may be allowed, while the specific recognition mechanism for activity-based stablecoin rewards remains unclear.<br /> The compromise stems from a lobbying tussle between the crypto industry and the banking industry: the banking industry insists that stablecoin rewards cannot be similar to interest-bearing bank deposits, citing the fact that such competing products could harm the banking industry and inhibit lending. The final compromise result is that reward plans based on user stablecoin activity are allowed, but balance-based rewards are not allowed.<br /> The closed-door review aims to push the Senate Banking Committee to schedule hearings, an important step towards a full Senate vote on the bill. A similar version of the Clarification Act passed the House last year, and another version also passed the Senate Agriculture Committee's marking process. There are still other obstacles to the bill's advancement: all parties still need to agree on a DeFi regulatory framework, and Democrats also insist on adding a clause that prohibits senior government officials from seeking personal benefits from the crypto industry, which is clearly targeted at President Trump.