In a move that will please legacy banking institutions, Senator Elizabeth Warren has issued a statement opposing the CLARITY Act, which is scheduled for a hearing at the Senate Banking Committee this Thursday.
Warren is the ranking Democrat member of the Committee and has long been anti-Fintech innovation and anti-crypto in general.
Senator Warren stated:
“This bill puts investors, our national security, and our entire financial system at risk – and it will turbocharge Donald Trump’s crypto corruption. In just one year in office, the President and his family have raked in at least $1.4 billion in gains from crypto deals alone, and yet this bill stunningly includes zero provisions to prevent that. The American people are watching. No Member of the Committee should support a bill that fails to stop the massive conflict of interests posed by Donald Trump and his family’s crypto ventures.”
Patrick Witt, the lead on the legislation from the White House, threw shade at the Senator’s comment:
“I’m so impressed that Elizabeth Warren stayed up all night to read the 300+ pages of the CLARITY Act and deliver an objective assessment of the bill’s merits and not just some knee-jerk reaction. This is what true public service looks like.”
The legislation must be approved in the Senate Banking Committee before it goes to a Floor vote and then reconciliation with the House version of the bill. Crypto advocates hope this can be accomplished before the Congressional Summer recess.
The legislation has largely fallen along partisan lines, with Republicans queueing up to support the crypto market infrastructure bill and some Democrats opposing it. At the same time, certain Democrats are backing the bill.
Recently, the banking industry has called upon its members, bank executives, to contact their Congressional representatives to fight the passage of the bill. This is largely due to the language that enables “rewards” for stablecoin holders. While banks earned a big victory by securing a ban on passive stablecoin yields, bank groups still want to go to the mat to further hobble digital asset innovators.
A passive stablecoin yield would be good for consumers, but banks have utilized hyperbole and doubt to undermine the concept, as they do not want to compete and perhaps need to increase the interest rates paid to deposit holders.