TechFlow News, May 11: According to The Block, Rob Nichols, CEO of the American Bankers Association (ABA), sent a letter to senior executives at major U.S. banks on Sunday evening, urging them to contact U.S. Senators and request further tightening of provisions related to stablecoin rewards ahead of the Senate Banking Committee’s markup vote scheduled for Thursday. Nichols warned that the current draft fails to effectively prevent crypto firms from offering users “interest-like rewards,” potentially triggering massive outflows from bank deposits and threatening economic growth and financial stability.
The current draft was jointly developed by Senators Angela Alsobrooks and Thom Tillis. It prohibits paying interest or yield on stablecoin holdings but permits rewards tied to genuine activity or transactions—a provision already endorsed by Coinbase. Banking industry groups argue that these exceptions contain loopholes that could be circumvented; on May 8, they jointly wrote to Committee Chairman Tim Scott and Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, requesting technical revisions to the language of the provision.
