Trump Says Banks Are Trying to Undermine Crypto’s Agenda in Clarity Act Debate

President Donald Trump took to Truth Social on Tuesday to highlight what has delayed the passage of the Clarity Act so far. According to him, banks have been delaying the discussions amid fears of people earning more money on stablecoin yield over traditional high-interest savings accounts.

“Americans should earn more money on their money. The Banks are hitting record profits, and we are not going to allow them to undermine our powerful Crypto Agenda that will end up going to China, and other Countries if we don’t get The Clarity Act taken care of,” Trump said.

He added that the passage of the Genius Act was the country’s “first big step” in establishing itself as the “Crypto Capital of the World,” and getting the Clarity Act passed would be the next step to help crypto companies establish a strong presence in the US.

Following discussions in February, White House crypto adviser Patrick Witt has set up an unofficial March 1 deadline for both parties to come to a unanimous decision, which has since passed.

Senate stalemate centers on stablecoin yield fight

While Trump publicly sided with the crypto industry, negotiations over the Clarity Act remain bogged down in the Senate.

At the core of the dispute is whether crypto exchanges and third-party firms should be allowed to offer yield on stablecoin holdings, effectively enabling users to earn interest-like returns on dollar-pegged tokens.

But why are traditional banks so worried?

According to publicly available data, Bank of America offers around 0.01% annual percentage yield (APY) on its standard savings accounts. Similarly, US Bank advertises a 0.05% APY on its basic savings product, with higher rates often requiring significant balances or additional qualifying accounts.

In contrast, on decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms such as Aave, users can stake or lend stablecoins to earn variable yields. At the time of writing, Aaave advertises staking APYs ranging between roughly 4% and 6.5% on select tokens, including stablecoins.

While banks rely heavily on customer deposits as a low-cost source of funding for lending activities, stablecoin products offering competitive returns could incentivize users to move idle cash into tokenized alternatives instead.

Hill pushes House language

During the Milken Institute Future of Finance event, French Hill, Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, defended the House-passed approach to stablecoin regulation.

Hill said if the Senate fails to reach what he described as a “straightforward conclusion” on whether stablecoin issuers may pass through yield to users, lawmakers should adopt the language already approved in the House version of the Clarity Act, which previously received support from 78 Democrats.

According to Hill, the legislation reiterates language from the Genius Act clarifying that stablecoins function as payment devices on a blockchain rather than an investment product, a distinction central to the current yield debate.

“We handled how we felt, and we reasserted, really, the language in Genius that on a bicameral, bipartisan basis, that stablecoins were a payment device on a blockchain and not an investment device.”

Hill added that the US Treasury could also address the matter through rulemaking, suggesting regulators may be able to resolve the question of yield distribution “quite fairly” without further legislative deadlock.

Prediction markets signal optimism

Despite the ongoing legislative impasse, prediction market participants appear confident that the Clarity Act will ultimately become law at some point before 2027.

On Polymarket, bettors have currently assigned roughly a 74% probability that the bill will be signed into law in 2026, according to market data as of the time of writing.

Similarly, 70% of bettors on Kalshi are positive that the Clarity Act will pass into law before 2027. The smallest probability was given to the March deadline, pricing it at 6¢ (6%), while the second-highest probability was placed on the act passing before June, priced at 46¢ (46%).

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