coindesk.com
Coinbase is pressuring lawmakers to preserve its ability to pay users rewards for holding stablecoins, as Congress prepares to move forward on a sweeping crypto bill.
The Senate is set to mark up the U.S. crypto market-structure bill this week, but language targeting yield-bearing stablecoin accounts has emerged as a sticking point.
If the bill goes beyond disclosure requirements and restricts non-bank firms like the Nasdaq-listed crypto exchange Coinbase from offering rewards, the company may pull its support, Bloomberg reports, citing a person familiar with the matter.
At the center of the fight is Coinbase’s yield program for users who hold USDC, a dollar-backed stablecoin issued by Circle, on its platform. The exchange shares the interest generated from USDC reserves with users, and offers 3.5% rewards through its Coinbase One subscription.
That revenue, which stood at $355 million in the third quarter of the year, helps the company during market drawdowns where trading volume wanes.
A proposal backed by some banks would limit stablecoin yield programs to regulated financial institutions. Banks argue these rewards pull deposits away from the traditional financial system and could harm the “small business, farmers, students and home buyers” by displacing funds from community bank lending.
Crypto companies, including Coinbase, counter that such rules would stifle competition and undercut a model that’s already regulated under the July-passed GENIUS Act.
Coinbase’s chief policy officer, Faryar Shirzad, said on social media that banks have earned around $360 billion a year from parking around $3 trillion at the Federal Reserve and from card swipe fees. These earnings, he said, are threatened by stablecoin rewards as they “introduce real competition in payments.”
“Independent research from Cornell confirms it: stablecoin adoption does not reduce bank lending,” Shirzad said, citing a study on stablecoins and banking from Cornell University. “In fact, rewards would need to approach 6% to meaningfully affect deposits. No one is offering anything close to that.”
While the bill enjoys backing from the Trump administration, disagreements over stablecoin rewards have started to fray bipartisan support. On Polymarket, traders are weighing a 68% chance the bill is passed into law this year, while on Kalshi, those odds are at 70%.
Some lawmakers are weighing a compromise: allow only firms with banking licenses to offer rewards. Five crypto firms, including Circle, Ripple, and BitGo, have in December last year received conditional approvals to become federally chartered trust banks. But even that may not settle the issue, as companies would likely find alternative ways to reward users for holding funds with them.