Big banks and big labor agree on almost nothing. This week they agree on one thing.
Both want the Senate to kill the crypto bill that's up for a vote Thursday. They see the same bill hurting their members in different ways.
The AFL-CIO is the largest labor group in the U.S. It joined four other unions last week. The group wrote to senators to ask them to vote no.
The SEIU, AFT, NEA, and AFSCME signed on too. They speak for millions of workers, teachers, and public staff.
Their main worry is what the bill could do to retirement savings. In the letter, the unions wrote that the bill puts workers' retirement plans and public pensions at risk. They warned of big swings in retirement accounts.
The AFL-CIO went further in a note to the Senate Banking Committee. Without proper rules, the group said, the bill would help "issuers and platforms at the expense of working people."
In plain English: if crypto bets go bad, workers' retirement money could be left holding the loss.
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Banks are fighting a different piece of the same bill. They're focused on a rule about stablecoins. Stablecoins are tokens tied to the dollar.
The rule would let crypto firms pay something like interest on those tokens. That sounds small. It isn't.
Banks pay you very little on a checking account. If crypto firms can pay savers more for parking dollars in tokens, banks worry that money will leave checking accounts.
A drop in deposits would force banks to find pricier ways to fund their loans.
The crypto side has pushed back. It says the bill bans those payments. Bankers don't read it the same way.
Both parties have been working on the bill for months. That's part of why it's moving at all.
There are still open issues with safety and ethics rules in the bill. That has kept Democrat support shaky.
A yes vote in the Banking panel is just step one. After that, the bill would go to the full Senate. As of Monday night, the panel hadn't even released the final text.
Stablecoins are now one of the most-used parts of crypto. Most of them are pegged to the U.S. dollar. That's why banks are paying close attention. The Senate bill is the biggest push yet to set firm rules around them.
Thursday's vote is the first real test. It will show how much weight the team of unions and banks can throw when they fight a bill together.
It will also test how much the crypto industry's growing pull in D.C. can absorb.
The final text decides who won.
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