A landmark digital asset bill has stalled after banking lobbyists demanded last-minute amendments ensuring traditional financial institutions can also participate in the unregulated gambling of made-up digital currency.
WASHINGTON—A landmark digital asset bill has temporarily stalled in the Senate after banking industry lobbyists demanded last-minute amendments ensuring traditional financial institutions are legally authorized to participate in the unregulated gambling of made-up digital currency.
The legislation, which aims to regulate stablecoins and broader cryptocurrency markets, hit a snag on Tuesday over a compromise regarding "stablecoin yield." Representatives from Wall Street's largest banks reportedly swarmed the Capitol to argue that it is fundamentally anti-competitive to allow only 24-year-old tech founders in the Bahamas to promise impossible returns on assets that do not actually exist.
According to leaked drafts of the banking sector’s proposed changes, traditional financial institutions want the legal framework to guarantee that when a digital asset inevitably collapses, established banks have a federally protected right to have already extracted billions of dollars in management fees from it.
If the federal government is going to formally legalize the practice of generating twenty percent annual returns out of completely thin air, it is only fair that century-old financial institutions get to run the scam.
Crypto industry backers immediately pushed back against the traditional finance sector's intrusion. Several prominent digital asset lobbyists testified before the Senate Banking Committee that legacy banks lack the necessary Discord servers, anime profile pictures, and offshore shell companies to properly execute a decentralized rug pull.
Senate leaders have indicated they will delay the final markup of the bill until next week, giving lawmakers time to carefully determine which coalition's imaginary money will translate into the most real dollars for their upcoming reelection campaigns.