The push comes from 77 state banking associations seeking changes to the CLARITY legislation, according to reporting on the associations’ letter. The ask is narrow and pointed: prohibit balance-based stablecoin rewards. For related coverage, see MiCA Stablecoin Rules in 2026: ARTs, EMTs, Reserves, and Redemption.
This is the latest chapter in a long fight over how the CLARITY Act treats digital assets. Banks and crypto firms have already been lobbying senators in their home states over the bill’s shape, and lawmakers have floated competing revisions along the way.
What “balance-based rewards” actually means here
The associations are not targeting every stablecoin perk. Their request zeroes in on balance-based stablecoin rewards, the qualifier that matters most in the headline claim.
Balance-based rewards pay users according to the size of the stablecoin balance they hold, a mechanic that looks a lot like interest on a deposit. That resemblance is precisely why banks have taken interest in the debate.
The available reporting does not lay out proposed legislative text or a precise legal definition of which rewards would be covered. So the exact scope of any ban, which issuers, products, or platforms it would touch, is not established by the current evidence.
What is clear is the boundary the associations drew. This is a request about balance-based rewards specifically, not a blanket call to outlaw all stablecoin incentives.
A request, not a done deal
The associations are seeking changes. That verb matters. Nothing in the available reporting shows the ban has been adopted, scheduled for a vote, or written into the bill.
There is no amendment text, no legislative timetable, and no effective date attached to the request. It sits, for now, as a demand from an industry bloc trying to influence how the bill lands.
The CLARITY Act itself remains a moving target. Senate Republicans have already revised the bill to address DeFi and prediction markets, while Democrats have pushed their own vertical integration provision. A rewards ban would be one more contested line in a bill that keeps getting rewritten.
The stakes trace back to a familiar tension. When stablecoin holders can earn yield simply by holding, that competes with the deposits banks rely on, which helps explain why banking groups keep circling stablecoin policy, including moves like Block’s bid for a national trust bank to handle stablecoin custody.
Whether lawmakers fold the request into the bill is the open question. For now, 77 associations have made their ask, and the CLARITY Act’s authors have not answered it.
Additional source references: source document 1.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice. Cryptocurrency and digital asset markets carry significant risk. Always do your own research before making decisions.
