U.S. Senate crypto draft backs “stablecoin rewards” ahead of key markup

The Banking Committee scheduled a formal markup for Thursday, framing the debate around jurisdictional lines (SEC vs. CFTC) and consumer protections while signaling that yield-like “stablecoin rewards” will be treated as a permitted product feature if providers meet program standards. The committee’s public notice confirms the timing of the session; details on rewards language were first reported in coverage of the draft bill on Jan. 13, 2026.

As the text moves toward markup, industry and banking groups are pressing their cases. Decrypt reported that crypto trade associations and exchanges view rewards as legitimate promotional or loyalty payments for holding regulated stablecoins on platforms, citing assurances from lawmakers about maintaining “parity” with banks in the bill’s final text. Community bankers, by contrast, warned senators that inducements on dollar-pegged tokens could siphon deposits from local lenders and impair credit formation.

Coinbase’s chief policy officer Faryar Shirzad argued that curbing rewards would hand an advantage to China’s digital yuan – which is exploring interest-bearing features – and risk pushing stablecoin adoption offshore. The American Bankers Association’s community bank council urged lawmakers to restrict such inducements, saying they could weaken community lending if savings migrate from insured deposits to token platforms. Both positions were laid out in the days leading up to the markup.

Behind the scenes, more than a dozen senators met in Chair Tim Scott’s office this week to hash out bill sticking points, including ethics provisions, DeFi treatment and consumer disclosure rules. Industry representatives plan to fan out across Capitol Hill during markup week to advocate for language that preserves rewards programs and clarifies intermediary registration. The push comes amid repeated delays – prior informal targets in July, October and December slipped without a vote.

If adopted, the panel’s approach would formalize space for platforms to credit customers with yield-like payments on fiat-backed stablecoins – separate from on-chain staking – and require clear disclosures about how rewards are funded and the risks to customers. Advocates say the construct resembles cash-back or promotional APY offers common in traditional finance; critics counter that retail branding could blur lines with interest and invite regulatory arbitrage. Those contours are expected to be clarified via amendments in Thursday’s session.

The markup also advances the bill’s core market-structure planks: setting bright-line commodity/securities jurisdiction, defining exchange and broker-dealer obligations for crypto venues, and tightening consumer-asset safeguards. Senate staff signaled that any final text must reconcile rewards treatment with bank-regulatory goals to avoid advantaging either banks or nonbanks – a “parity” principle industry lobbyists said they were told to expect.