The crypto industry has been chasing real federal rules for years. It is finally getting close.
The Senate Banking Committee has set May 14 for its first vote on a major crypto bill. The bill would write the rules of the road for stablecoins, which are digital tokens designed to track the U.S. dollar one-for-one.
The bill has already drawn pushback from the country's biggest banks.
The bill tackles one of the touchiest issues in crypto. Can stablecoins pay rewards to people who hold them? Those rewards have been the main hook for using a stablecoin in the first place.
Banks argue the rewards look too much like interest paid on a savings account. If stablecoins offer better yields, deposits walk out the door. That would cost banks the cheap funding they rely on to make loans.
A compromise from Sens. Thom Tillis and Angela Alsobrooks tried to thread that needle. The deal limits stablecoin rewards in a way that wouldn't directly compete with bank deposit yields.
Coinbase and other major crypto firms are now on board. The fight isn't done yet, though. Commercial and community banking groups still say the language "falls short" of protecting their deposits.
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Committee Chairman Tim Scott told Fox Business he wants "13 of 13 Republicans" lined up before the vote. Whether any Democrats sign on is less clear.
The sticking point: rules about how lawmakers themselves can profit from digital assets.
This isn't the first time the bill has come close. The same committee was set to advance it in January. The vote was scrubbed at the last minute after both banks and crypto firms raised concerns about the language.
Even if the bill clears committee, there's still distance to go. Several senators have said it could pick up Democratic support between the committee vote and a Senate floor vote.
The House would still need to weigh in next. Lawmakers there may want to make their own changes, which could push the timeline further out.
Tillis acknowledged on X that banks won't be happy with the current language. His response: "we respectfully agree to disagree."
May 14 is the test of how unified Republicans actually are on crypto. The bigger test comes later, once the bill leaves committee and Democrats have to pick a side.
The reason it matters for investors is simple. A federal framework would clear the legal fog around stablecoins, which is now a market worth hundreds of billions of dollars. That changes how banks, payments companies, and crypto firms can build.
It also sets the playing field for the next wave of crypto products that have been stuck waiting for federal clarity.
A vote next week. Then the real fight starts.
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