US Crypto Bill Edges Closer After White House Breakthrough

QUICK ANSWER What’s happening? The White House brokered a second negotiation session between banks and crypto firms on the CLARITY Act. Ripple’s CLO Stuart Alderoty called the talks “productive” and said compromise is building. Banks made their first written concessions on stablecoin yield, though no deal has been reached. A 1 March deadline has been set.

The United States may be closer than at any point in its history to passing comprehensive crypto market structure legislation, after a White House-brokered negotiation session on 10 February produced the first tangible signs of compromise between the banking industry and digital asset companies. Ripple’s Chief Legal Officer Stuart Alderoty described the meeting as “productive,” adding that bipartisan momentum behind the legislation remained strong and urging all parties to act while the political window remains open.

The meeting — the second convened by the White House in under a fortnight — brought together executives from Ripple, Coinbase, Circle, a16z, and Crypto.com on one side of the table, facing representatives from America’s largest banking lobbying groups on the other. At its centre sits a single, fiercely contested question: should stablecoins be allowed to pay yield to holders?

The Stablecoin Yield Standoff

The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, commonly known as the CLARITY Act, aims to establish for the first time a clear regulatory framework for how digital assets are classified and regulated in the US. The legislation has already cleared the House of Representatives and passed through the Senate Agriculture Committee. What remains is passage through the Senate Banking Committee — and that is where the stablecoin yield debate has become a roadblock.

Banks argue that permitting stablecoin issuers to offer yield on holdings would effectively allow crypto companies to compete with bank deposits without being subject to the same regulatory requirements. Their concern is straightforward: if consumers can earn interest on stablecoins held outside the traditional banking system, deposits could migrate at scale, undermining the funding base that supports local lending.

The crypto industry sees it differently. Stablecoin yield, they argue, is a natural function of blockchain-based financial infrastructure and restricting it would hobble innovation at precisely the moment when European payments systems are already evolving to incorporate tokenised and digital-first rails. Prohibiting yield would also put US-regulated stablecoins at a competitive disadvantage against offshore alternatives that face no such restriction.

What Changed at the February Meeting

The first White House meeting on 2 February produced goodwill but no movement on specifics. Banks arrived without any written concessions. The second meeting was different. Banking representatives came with a formal principles document that, while still calling for a general prohibition on stablecoin yield, acknowledged for the first time that certain exemptions could be discussed. They also engaged on the question of which account activities might be permissible — a significant shift from their prior refusal to discuss the topic at all.

For the crypto side, this represented progress. The Blockchain Association’s CEO Summer Mersinger described the talks as “constructive,” and Alderoty’s public statement was notably more optimistic than anything that had emerged from previous sessions. BitGo CEO Mike Belshe, however, struck a more impatient tone, arguing that stablecoin yield should not be allowed to delay the broader market structure bill any further.

The White House has reportedly set a 1 March deadline for both sides to reach agreement. Whether that deadline holds is another matter.

Why This Matters Beyond the US

The outcome of the CLARITY Act will have ramifications well beyond American borders. Europe’s MiCA regulation already provides a framework for stablecoin issuance and crypto asset classification, but it was designed with the expectation that the US would eventually produce something comparable. If the CLARITY Act passes with a workable stablecoin yield provision, it could set the global benchmark — much as Europe’s carbon border tax is reshaping global trade standards.

For European financial institutions already navigating an increasingly complex regulatory environment, US legislative clarity on crypto would remove a major source of cross-border uncertainty. It would also accelerate the institutional capital flows that are already underway — Goldman Sachs’ recent disclosure of a $1.1 billion Bitcoin ETF position being the most prominent example.

Prediction markets currently give the CLARITY Act roughly a 56–59 percent chance of passing in 2026, down from 72 percent following an earlier Senate Democrats meeting. The odds reflect genuine uncertainty: the Senate’s legislative calendar is crowded, midterm elections are approaching, and the stablecoin yield issue remains unresolved. But the direction of travel is clear.

The Clock Is Ticking

The political window for crypto legislation is narrower than it appears. As the US moves deeper into the midterm election cycle, floor time in the Senate becomes increasingly scarce and politically charged. Legislative priorities compete fiercely for attention, and any bill that hasn’t cleared committee by summer faces an uphill battle to reach a vote.

That urgency is not lost on the crypto industry. Companies that have watched startup valuations evaporate in the absence of clear regulatory frameworks understand that uncertainty is itself a cost — one measured in lost capital, delayed launches, and talent migration to friendlier jurisdictions.

For business leaders tracking where institutional capital and regulatory momentum are converging, the CLARITY Act negotiations represent the most consequential policy development in digital assets this year. Alderoty’s assessment that “compromise is in the air” may prove optimistic. But for the first time, both sides are at least negotiating over the same document — and that, in Washington, counts as progress.

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