Key Highlights
- Sen. Cynthia Lummis said the CLARITY Act can still secure the votes needed in the Senate despite pressure from the banking lobby.
- The main fight remains around stablecoin rewards and whether they could pull deposits away from community banks.
- Banking groups are pushing Congress to tighten the bill, while White House data argues a stablecoin yield ban would do little to protect bank lending.
Sen. Cynthia Lummis said the CLARITY Act can still reach the Senate’s 60-vote threshold, even as banking groups increase pressure on lawmakers over stablecoin rewards and deposit-flight concerns.
In a video interview shared by journalist Eleanor Terrett, Lummis said the challenge is not whether supporters can find the votes, but whether they can convince lawmakers who fear community banks could lose deposits to digital asset products.
“We will get the votes,” Lummis said, adding that supporters need to identify senators worried that “their community banks might suffer a loss of deposits” and explain why she believes that concern is overstated.
Banks Push Back Over Stablecoin Rewards
The CLARITY Act has become one of the most closely watched crypto bills in Washington because it would create a broader market-structure framework for digital assets. The Senate Banking Committee advanced H.R. 3633, the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act of 2025, by a 15-9 vote on May 14, sending it to the Senate floor.
The banking industry’s main concern is stablecoin rewards. Banking groups argue that crypto exchanges and intermediaries could use reward programs to offer yield-like benefits that compete with bank deposits.
The American Bankers Association, Bank Policy Institute, Consumer Bankers Association, Financial Services Forum and Independent Community Bankers of America said in May that the proposed CLARITY language “falls short” of fully banning yield and interest on stablecoins. They also warned that certain exchange membership programs could become a loophole for interest-like rewards.
ABA has also released fresh polling as the Senate prepares to consider the bill, saying 57% of consumers supported banning crypto companies from offering interest-like stablecoin rewards if those rewards risk drawing deposits away from local banks.
Lummis Says Banks Can Benefit From Digital Assets
Lummis pushed back against the deposit-flight argument, saying stablecoins and community banks can coexist. She argued that banks could eventually use digital asset products to expand their own local financial services.
“If you look at the statistics, as stablecoins have been issued and become embedded in our economy, deposits in banks have gone up,” Lummis said in the clip. “These types of financial products can coexist.”
The latest FRED data shows deposits at all U.S. commercial banks reached $19.285 trillion for the week ended May 20, up from $19.103 trillion on April 29. Separately, the Federal Reserve said the stablecoin market reached $317 billion as of April 6, 2026, after growing more than 50% since early 2025.
White House Data Gives Crypto Side a Counter
The White House Council of Economic Advisers has also questioned the banking lobby’s argument. Its April report said the GENIUS Act already requires stablecoin issuers to maintain one-to-one reserves and bars issuers from offering yield, though it does not explicitly ban affiliate or third-party arrangements.
The same report found that eliminating stablecoin yield would increase bank lending by only $2.1 billion, or 0.02%, while creating an estimated $800 million net welfare cost. It also estimated community banks would account for only $500 million of that additional lending.
That finding gives crypto-friendly lawmakers a direct response to banks warning that stablecoin rewards could weaken local lending.
What Comes Next
The CLARITY Act still faces a difficult Senate path. After clearing committee, the bill must survive floor negotiations, potential amendments and a 60-vote threshold before any final reconciliation with other digital asset legislation.
For now, Lummis is framing the banking lobby’s campaign as a persuasion problem rather than a vote-counting defeat. The next test will be whether enough senators accept her argument that stablecoin growth is not a direct threat to community banks.
Also Read: The CLARITY Act War Starts: Jamie Dimon Vs Armstrong
