Banks lobby US Treasury for blanket stablecoin yield ban, Coinbase pushes back

Coinbase insists that the US Treasury cannot override Congress’s intent on the GENIUS Act, but banks continue to press for a blanket ban on stablecoin interest.

The US Department of the Treasury is facing conflicting feedback from crypto companies and traditional banking groups over how to implement the GENIUS Act, the law that regulates stablecoin payments in the US.

In a letter on Tuesday, Coinbase urged the Treasury to limit a ban on stablecoin interest payments exclusively to stablecoin issuers, while allowing it for non-issuers, such as crypto exchanges. Coinbase said its proposal aligns with Congress’s intent when passing the legislation.

At the same time, several banking groups, led by the Bank Policy Institute (BPI), have pressed the Treasury to extend the prohibition to non-issuers, advocating for a blanket ban on stablecoin interest payments.

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