The American Bankers Association (ABA) has made cracking down on stablecoin yield a top priority for 2026, amid its ongoing debate with US lawmakers that it will hurt the banking industry’s competitiveness.
The ABA said on Tuesday that one of several priorities it has this year is to “stop payment stablecoins from becoming deposit substitutes that slash community bank lending by prohibiting paying interest, yield or rewards regardless of the platform.”
Stablecoin oversight topped a list of five priorities, which also included fighting financial fraud, stopping arbitrary interest rate caps, and focusing on indexing and mission-driven banks. ABA CEO and president Rob Nichols said the priorities are guided by input from various banks and businesses of all sizes and models.
Banking exec says $6 trillion could move out of banks
The dispute between the association and the crypto industry is over whether yield-bearing stablecoins will pull deposits away from traditional banks, which the bank lobby argues will weaken lending and erode banks’ role in the financial system.
Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan argued earlier this month that up to $6 trillion could move out of banks into interest-paying stablecoins.
Although the GENIUS Act, passed last year, prohibited stablecoin issuers from offering interest or yield to holders, the ABA’s Community Bankers Council said in a letter to lawmakers in early January that a so-called loophole in the laws could let yield-bearing stablecoins undercut traditional banks.
Circle CEO says concerns are “totally absurd”
The Community Bankers Council told the Senate it must put provisions in market structure legislation to tighten stablecoin rules to prevent issuers from offering yield through third parties.
However, crypto executives are convinced that allowing stablecoin yields will help more than it hurts.
Related: ‘Literally billions’ of AI agents to use stablecoins in 5 years: Circle CEO
Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire dismissed concerns that stablecoin yields could trigger bank runs as “totally absurd.” “They help with stickiness, they help with customer traction,” he said at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Meanwhile, Anthony Scaramucci, founder of asset manager SkyBridge Capital, said that a prohibition on yield-bearing stablecoins puts the US dollar at a competitive disadvantage to China’s digital yuan, a yield-bearing central bank digital currency.
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