White House’s crypto czar David Sacks is set to chair a high-profile meeting with the leaders of the crypto industry and top representatives of the Wall Street banks on Monday. The White House meeting is intended to address the CLARITY Act impasse between the two sects of the financial industry — that is keeping the market structure bill from finalization and deployment.
The White House has assumed the role of the mediator between crypto giant Coinbase and the U.S. banking industry — both of which are locking horns on the proposed CLARITY Act. The meeting at the White House on Monday is expected to initiate several rounds of policy negotiations for the coming weeks.
Stablecoins under White House spotlight
As pointed out by crypto advocates to the media, the question on if crypto platforms should pay an interest on users’ stablecoin holdings has emerged as the main topic on agenda.
Many, including Coinbase CEO Brian Amrstrong, have opposed the proposed CLARITY Act citing that the guidelines kill user rewards on stablecoins — as a strategy by banks to ban their competition.
The resolution to the ongoing back-and-forth on the CLARITY Act is expected to begin from addressing this stablecoin yield issue.
As per reports, this meeting is not C-suite. This means, Neither President Donald Trump will be part of it nor will Coinbase cheif Armstrong and other banking chiefs be among attendees.
Instead, senior policy executives from the banking as well as the crypto sector will mark their presence in this meeting with Sacks. Representatives from banking groups like the American Banking Associations (ABA) and the Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) will join members from crypto trade groups like the Crypto Council, Digital Chamber, and the Blockchain Association in Washington D.C. for legislative discussions.
State of the CLARITY Act
The CLARITY Act will establish clear guidelines for banks and crypto companies to work together and offer financial solutions to the U.S. nationals. It also pitches the SEC and the CFTC to become chief leading agencies for the crypto industry.
The Senate committees of banking and agriculture — that respectively oversee the SEC and the CFTC — had collectively drafted the draft CLARITY Act legislation.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, however, withdrew support for the law saying, “There are too many issues, including the erosion of the CFTC’s authority, stifling innovation and making it subservient to the SEC,” among other reasons.
After Coinbase’s pushback, the Senate Banking Committee postponed its mark-up session on the CLARITY Act. Meanwhile, the Agriculture Committee went forward with its mark-up session last week and voted to advance the market structure bill to the next phase. However, a support from the Democratic wing is still awaited amid the ongoing negotiations.
For now, the Banking Committees’s next mark-up session date remains unannounced.