Tag Archives: GENIUS

Stablecoin Rewards’ Last Hope – Clarity Act

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Summary

  • Clarity Act stuck in Senate on Stablecoin Rewards, 70% chance of passage this year
  • Stablecoin yield (or anything that resembles it) goes away, and rewards look more like what you have on your Visa card. Coinbase pulled out because of crypto restrictions in the bill (not stablecoin).
  • Industry will likely pivot to sweep, and Stableocin becomes just another rail, which will require consumer and merchant adoption, without the big “draw” of balance rewards. Thus, balances stay in transactional and interest-bearing accounts, and friction increases w/ stablecoin payments.
  • Politics of key players and quotes in blog today.

The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act of 2025 (H.R. 3633) is the last hope for Stablecoin issuers to save rewards. While the bill passed the House with a strong bipartisan vote on July 17, 2025, its progress has stalled in the Senate (as of Feb 2028) with intense disagreements regarding the regulation of stablecoin “rewards” and yield-like incentives.

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No more Stablecoin “rewards”

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The OCC Just Dropped the Hammer on Stablecoin Yield: Why “Rewards” Are the New Front Line

Updated (Huge Impact to Tether and other non-US Stablecoin Issuers)

As a payments expert who has watched the “shadow banking” sector flirt with regulatory boundaries for years, today’s draft guidance from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) on the GENIUS Act implementation is my “I told you so” (60 day comment period).

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Genius Law – What to Expect?

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Yesterday President Trump signed the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act into law, clearing the path for dollar-backed stablecoins. As I’ve argued before, the future of money is a new model of trust, and this legislation provides the regulatory certainty needed for that trust. 

The GENIUS Act is a landmark piece of legislation. It establishes a dual charter system, enabling both federal and state-regulated stablecoin issuers. The key provisions are precisely what the industry needed: a mandate for 1:1 reserves with high-quality liquid assets like cash and short-term treasuries, a prohibition on reusing those reserves, and the designation of issuers as financial institutions under the Bank Secrecy Act. This isn’t just about compliance; it’s about building a foundation of trust that can be exported globally.

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Stablecoin Plays and Players – Issuers, Infrastructure, and Innovators

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Today’s blog is focused on private companies, business models, and competitive dynamics shaping the stablecoin “industry”. Note Google Gemini was used in discerning company performance and focus.

No we are not going to drill into every company in Block’s DeFi market overview, Stablecoin Liquidity, or the 172 companies in CB Insights Stabllecoin industry map…  but rather some highlights and how the market is likely to evolve in near term. Even though I”m focusing on just a few of the companies below, this is still a rather long 25 pages.

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Retail Banking and Stablecoins

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Friction, Float, and the Future

As a Banker, Founder and Payment Historian who has spent too long watching icebergs melt, I’ve seen many technologies promise to upend the banking industry. Most have been evolutionary, not revolutionary. But the advent of digital dollars, particularly consumer-facing stablecoins, are unique. Payments are the core of retail banking and profitability. Payments are a networked business, not just in card but in every consortium and association. As I outlined in The Power of Bank Networks, these networks are the engines that drive economies and how banks connect to the environment. For my colleagues in banking and payments, understanding how (or if) stablecoins impact payments is very important.

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Stablecoins: Bank Strategy – Just Another Rail

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Bankers View: Stablecoins, Deposits, and the Future of Payments

Summarizing my 20 odd tweets yesterday. Note that I don’t necessarily agree with the banks’ strategy, but I do understand it. Given that most of the press is focused on how Stablecoins will destroy banking, I thought a banker’s view would be a useful counterbalance.

The buzz around stablecoins continues, often painting a picture of banks demise. As a former banker I thought I’d share my view on the topic and explain the bank strategy (as I see it). While stablecoins present novel tech, the notion that they will supplant established retail banking relationships is a bunch of “hooky”. Big banks aren’t just watching from the sidelines; they are best positioned to integrate this new rail, much like they’ve absorbed countless payment innovations before.

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